A Wedding in Tokyo
by Ulysses Quanta
Summary: Shido's plan is set into motion as Akira Kurusu and Haru Okumura find their lives turned upside down. Meanwhile, the Phantom Thieves, led by the Niijima sisters, start their fight against injustice. AU, fic cover made by fellow FFN writer Raeror.
1. Chapter 1: Deal

_Author's Note: As a heads up to new readers, there's going to be some elements in play that may result in people trying to guess what I have planned. _

Bewear_ of the reviews because of this._

...

The door to the interrogation room opened. Akira didn't bother looking up at the person walking in, until they audibly cleared their throat. Akira looked up at him, and was surprised by who he saw.

"Akira Kurusu," the man opposite him said. "For your rather brutal assault on me, you'll be looking at a few years in juvenile hall. Possibly even longer, depending on the judge."

Akira said nothing, continuing to watch him in surprise. What could be gained by him saying anything to him? What could the man gain by being in a room with his so called attacker?

"Damn brat! I'll sue!"

If he was going to sue, or put him in prison, then why was he here?

"It's such a shame, really. You seem like you have a bright future ahead of you." A small smile grew on the man's face. "Well, did, until you attacked me. But alas, the youth of today have no respect for their elders and insist on reacting in such uncouth ways."

_Don't let him rile you up,_ Akira thought.

"So rather than pursue the future you had planned," he said as he stood up and walked towards the door." You'll be spending the rest of your life with a criminal record, known as nothing more than a denliquent with a violent temper." He stopped in front of the door. "Unless..." He turned around to face Akira. "...you would be willing to help me. In exchange for this rather horrendous event being kept quiet and you not getting a criminal record, I would require your co-operation with a small matter."

Akira couldn't contain himself. "Why?" he asked. "Why would you want me?"

"Why indeed." The man lent over and placed his hands on the table, glasses hiding the piercing glare he was giving the boy. "Because if you don't, you go to juvenile hall, and be nothing more than a criminal, a disgrace to all who know you. If you do..."

Akira looked down at the table in front of him. "The thankful reciever shall bare a plentiful harvest," he mumbled.

"Yet he who refuses, shall never see the fruits of what may be." The man stood back up straight. "So, what will you do, Akira? Will you rot away in a dark corner as a criminal? Or will you help me and save your future?"

Akira sighed, before pushing himself up out of the chair and looking at the man. "Doesn't sound like I have a choice, does it?"

He smiled. "I'm glad you made the right decision, Akira." He held out his hand to the boy. "My name is Masayoshi Shido. It's a pleasure to meet you," Shido said.

"Right..." Akira reluctantly shook his hand. "What do you want me to do?"

"I will contact you later, for we will need to make some preparations first. For now, go home and pack, you won't be living here much longer." And with that, Shido walked out of the door as Akira sat back down in the chair.

_What did he mean, pack?_ he thought.

...

"Wait!" Kamoshida began to sob. "Please, wait! I beg you, just forgive me!"

"When you told me you found out what he was doing, and what he was planning to do to you, I never imagined he'd end up begging for us to forgive him."

Makoto glanced at her older sister. "I didn't either. But I have no intention of forgiving him."

Sae nodded. "Good. Now, onto what should we do with you," she said, glaring at Kamoshida. "You took everything from your students. You hurt them, you ruined them. You were suppposed to mentor them, to help them. Instead, you did the exact opposite. You used them for your own self gratification. One girl almost died because of what you did. How many more died or were driven away like you tried to do to my sister?"

A laser shot burned itself into the wall near Kamoshida, making him scream in fear.

"If I may interject," Akechi began as he walked up next to the two women. "He still has the treasure Mona told us to get. We should retrieve that, yes?"

"Of course." Makoto and Sae turned to glare at Kamoshida, who quickly took the hint and threw the treasure towards them.

"Go ahead and finish me off. You do that, and my real self will go down too," he explained. "You've won... You've earned the right to do that."

The four of them looked at each other, then back at the whimpering, groveling mess of a man in front of them.

"If we kill him, he can't confess his crimes," Morgana warned them.

"And we wouldn't be able to bring him to justice for what he did to all of the other students."

"Nor would we be able to find out how many students he actually got kicked out."

"Indeed." Akechi took aim and shot at Kamoshida, burning the floor in front of him as he scrambled backwards. "So we won't kill you. Instead, we'll give you a chance to live, and to earn forgiveness. Confess your crimes, let justice prevail. Appreciate your chance at life, because if you don't confess, you will not get another."

"Then... I've lost. You're through when you lose..." Kamoshida looked up at them, tears flowing from his eyes. "But all right... I will leave now, and return to my real self. I will make certain that I confess..." he whispered as he faded away in front of them.

"He disappeared..." Sae observed, before the palace started to rumble and shake.

"Without Kamoshida's Shadow here, the palace will collapse! We need to go!" Morgana warned them.

"Then we should take our leave." The four nodded, and promptly began sprinting for the exit of the palace.

"So with his Shadow gone, does that mean he will confess?" Sae asked as they ran.

"I think so! We should've triggered a change of heart in him by doing this," Morgana explained.

"How long will that take?"

"I don't know. But it shouldn't be that long! Now run faster!"

...

"Kunikazu Okumura."

The man turned around to see who'd called his name. "Shido-san," he greeted his visitor. "It has been a while. How have you been?" he asked as he held his hand out to him.

Shido reached out and shook his hand. "I have been well. And you?"

"The same as always. Might I ask what happened?" Kunikazu raised an eyebrow at the bandage on his head.

"A minor incident involving my newest protégé. It has been resolved swiftly and easily," he said reassuringly.

"A new protégé? Have you decided to take someone under your wing?"

"Something along those lines, yes. I was in a town when some poor fool tried to rob me. The kid stepped in and saved me, but the attacker did this," he pointed to the bandage, "to me. He has since been dealt with, and I decided to teach the kid about the world."

Shido was lying, of course. But that was nothing new to politicians such as him.

"I see. That's concerning," Kunikazo said. "But onto what we wanted to discuss. My political career."

"Indeed. Politics is a very dangerous game to play. Are you sure you wish to start?"

"I did not come this far to back down now, Shido-san." Kunikazo sat down on a chair and stared at the glass on the table. "I want to join the political stage."

Shido hummed to himself as he sat down on the couch. "Getting into politics by yourself is a very bad move. If you want to join, you should join a party."

"Like yours?"

"Yes. We're working for the future of Japan. If you want to help further that future, I would suggest that you join with us."

"Hmm." Kunikazu picked up the glass in front of him and began to inspect it. "And what about you? What do you stand to gain from me joining you and your party?"

"Having the CEO of Okumura Foods as a supporter and a member would draw more attention to us and show to the other companies in Japan that we have their best interests at heart. Meanwhile, you get to play your part in politics, and your company will benefit from the publicity, as people will be eager to help us out in any way they can."

If Kunikazu was paying attention, he might have noticed the crossed fingers behind Shido's back. "Such as buying stocks in the company..." Kunikazu placed the glass back down on the table. "But even with that, people would soon lose interest and pay attention to other things. How do you suggest we keep their attention?

Shido chuckled as he stood up. "We hold a wedding."

"A wedding?" Kunikazo echoed.

"A wedding. If the daughter of the CEO of Okumura Foods was to be wed, people all over the country would be interested. It wouldn't require much. A few interviews, a celebratory party, and the wedding itself. The engagement alone would draw in an audience. Okumura and Shido, two well known names in Japan, are involved in a wedding. Who could dare not to watch?"

Kunikazu nodded. Truth be told, he doubted how much attention such an event would draw, but any media attention would be good for him. "Who would she marry?"

"Do you remember the protégé I mentioned?"

"Yes."

Shido nodded. "You can come out now."

And Akira stepped out from behind a corner, walking over to where the two men were sat.

"This is Akira Kurusu, the boy who helped me in Inaba. I believe he will be a perfect fit for your daughter.

Kunikazu nodded. "Haru!" He called loudly from where he was sat. "Come here now!"

"Coming, father!" the girl answered as she walked in through the doors and into the room.

"Haru, introduce yourself."

"O-oh! My name is Haru Okumura!" she said, bowing to both Shido and Akira.

Shido looked at Akira. "You should as well."

Akira nodded, before turning to face Kunikazu and Haru. "I have no name, for I am but two days old," he said as he bowed.

Haru looked at him in confusion as Shido cleared his throat. "Just kidding. My name is Akira Kurusu," he finished.

"You two," Shido began. "We," he gestured to himself and Kunikazu, "have decided that in order for both of you to help us, we will need you two to do something for us."

The two glanced at him. "What is it?" Akira asked.

"We will be require you two to be wedded."

"Wedded?" Akira repeated.

"I am to marry him?" Haru asked.

"Yes," Kunikazu said. "So you will need to get to know one another. Do not let us down."

_Or Shido will put me in juvenile hall_, Akira thought as he glanced over at Haru, who was just as surprised as he was.

"O-oh. I won't, father." Haru turned to Akira and walked over to him. "It's nice to meet you, Akira-san." She said as she bowed.

"You too, Haru," he said as he awkwardly bowed as well.

_Guess this is my life now._

...

_Author's Note: Well, ain't this a surprise. I honestly don't know where this is going and when I will be uploading, but I can assure you I will do my best with this fic. I hope you all enjoy reading it!_

_Shout out to QuoteMyFoot on Discord for checking this over to make sure it made sense._


	2. Chapter 2: Arrival

"So," Kawakami began as she stood in front of the entrance to the school arms crossed in front of her. "You're the new transfer student, Akira Kurusu?"

Akira nodded, gazing down at the concrete beneath his feet. Shido had taken the liberty of enrolling him here as a second year to ensure that he had "the education befitting the future of Japan", as he had proclaimed while they were traveling to the residence he was staying at. Truth be told, Akira didn't know what to expect.

It had been a whirlwind three days since his arrest, after all.

"In that case, welcome to Shujin Academy. I'm sure Haru's told you all about our school, but we will have time to go over any questions you may have later. There has been an emergency assembly called by the principal, and you will both have to come with me to it." With that, Kawakami turned around and walked into the school.

"Another emergency assembly...?" Haru repeated.

"That can't be good."

Haru and Akira both looked towards each other, before walking in after Kawakami.

"So since you're in the year below me, we won't be sharing any classes," Haru explained as they walked. "I hope you get to make some friends while you are here, but come find me if you wish to see me. I'm usually in the garden."

"Thanks, Haru. I appreciate it," Akira said. Haru smiled sweetly at him as they approached the assembly hall.

"Here we are." Kawakami announced. "Just walk in and find a place to stand, the assembly will begin in a moment." The two students nodded and walked into the hall, quickly finding a place in amidst the throng of students all standing in the hall. Akira glanced next to him to find Haru had started talking to a brown haired girl with a braid in her hair.

_Must be one of Haru's friends,_ Akira thought.

"Er-hem!" A rather large framed man with a bald head, who Akira assumed must be the principal, took to the stage. "I have called this assembly today due to recent events coming to light involving Shujin Academy."

He reminded Akira of a fat penguin. Or maybe a gorilla? He wasn't sure. Definitely some sort of animal.

"After the... recent revelations involving Mr Kamoshida, we have accepted his resignation from the school effective immediately, and he is being encouraged to turn himself in to the police."

The hall erupted into murmuring.

"So was everything he confessed true?"

"He's gone? Hah... Hahahaha! He's gone!"

"Nooo! I liked Mr Kamoshida!"

"May I have your attention?" the principal's voice boomed over the murmuring, quietening the room. "Furthermore, due to the resignation of the coach, the volleyball team will soon be disbanded. We will be looking into the other clubs and activities here at Shujin to make sure that similar events have not been happening underneath our noses this whole time, either."

"The volleyball team is being disbanded?! This is like track all over again!"

"Why bother? If Kamoshida got away with it this long, I'm sure the others will be better at hiding it."

"He's gone! He's gone! Hahaha!"

"That is all! Now please, return to your classes!" The principal stepped away from the microphone and walked off the stage.

Akira looked around, quickly spotting Haru in amongst the crowd of students walking out of the hall. He attempted to catch up to her, only to be snatched out by a hand on his shoulder.

"Your class is this way, Kurusu," Kawakami informed him as she pulled him out of the crowd and began walking ahead of him out of the hall.

"Who was Kamoshida? Why did he resign?" Akira asked as he walked behind Kawakami.

"Kamoshida was our volleyball coach. He recently confessed to abusing some of our students on the volleyball team. That's all you need to know." She answered.

"If he was abusing students, why wasn't he reported sooner?"

"That's what I want to know, too. In the meantime, forget about Kamoshida and focus on your studies." Kawakami walked up to the door of a classroom and opened it, allowing Akira to walk inside. "Your first class today will be homeroom, so you will get chance to meet your fellow students before the rest of your classes start. Be sure to introduce yourself and please take this seriously, you'll want to leave a good impression on them."

_That's a lot to take in,_ Akira thought, but instead, he nodded and walked over to a desk. Setting his bag down, he pulled out a seat and sat down, awaiting the influx of students he was supposed to get to know.

It didn't take long for them to arrive. There were a lot of different people, different hair colours to look at. All talking, all murmuring. There was a lot more going on here than Akira was used to, and he had been living in the same town as an idol singer, for crying out loud!

If the students noticed him, they didn't say anything. Not to him, anyway.

"Now, before we start, I would like to mention two things." Kawakami began. "First of all, I want no further talk about Kamoshida. The issue has been resolved, and the police will handle it."

A quiet murmur broke out in the classroom, which quickly elapsed back into silence.

"Second of all, we have a new student joining us. I would like you all to welcome him into our class and help him settle into life here at Shujin."

Akira took that as his cue. He stood up straight from his chair and turned to face the rest of his class.

_"Please take this seriously, you'll want to leave a good first impression on them."_

Why on Earth should he take this seriously?

"I have no name, for I am but two days old," he said with a very heavily overly exaggurated posh accent as he stood on his tiptoes to make himself look taller.

Out of the corner of Akira's eye, Kawakami sighed and covered her hand with her face. Or face with her hand, rather. _Oh no,_ she thought. _He's not taking this seriously at all._

"I'm just kidding. My name is Akira Kurusu, it's nice to meet you all," he said in his normal voice as he returned to his normal posture, a small smile growing on his face.

The students, to their credit, smiled at him back, choosing to overlook the odd spectacle that had just happened.

"Anyway..." Kawakami turned to look at the blonde haired woman sat in front of Akira as he sat back down. "Takamaki, you'll be showing Kurusu around the school today. Make sure he knows where he needs to go," she said.

The woman called Takamaki nodded and turned around to face Akira. "My name is Ann Takamaki. Is there anywhere you'd want to be shown to after class?" she asked.

"The garden," Akira answered. Ann nodded and turned back around to face the front.

"So in today's class..." Kawakami began as she turned to face the blackboard.

...

The bell rang, signifying the end of homeroom. "Now remember, please review your materials for next week when you go home for the day, it'll be helpful when you have to do your mid-terms," Kawakami said as she began to clean the blackboard.

"So, you wanted to go to the school garden, right?" Ann asked as she started to pack her things. Akira nodded and stood up, bag already packed. "Follow me, it's this way." Ann picked up her bag and started walking out of the classroom, Akira walking close behind her.

"So, did you transfer here? Where did you live before?" Ann asked as they walked.

"I did, and I used to live in a town called Inaba. It was small and quiet."

"Inaba? That's where Risette lives, right? Did you meet her?"

"Ehh..." Akira rubbed the back of his head. "You're asking a lot of questions, Takamaki-san."

"Call me Ann. And sorry! I'm just happy to meet a new student," she explained.

Akira shrugged and slid his hands into his pockets. "That's fine. Sorry, I'm just not used to it. But yeah, I met her. She came to my school on a visit. She seemed nice and energetic."

"You got to meet Risette? That's amazing. I wonder if I could meet her..." Ann trailed off as they walked out into a wide open space, filled with various flowers and plants. "This is the garden, but wow. I've never seen it this beautiful..."

"That's amazing to hear. I'm glad you like it," a voice next to them said, causing them to look at the source of the voice.

"Haru," Akira greeted the fluffy brunette. "Did you do this?"

"Mostly. I like to tend to the flowers here, but Mako-chan helps as well," she explained.

"Mako-chan...?"

Haru nodded and smiled. "She isn't here now, but she helps me sometimes." Haru turned to look at Ann. "And you are?" she asked.

"Oh, I'm Ann Takamaki! Kurusu-san wanted to go to the garden, so I showed him here," she explained.

"Ohh. It's a pleasure to meet you, Takamaki-san."

"Likewise. Is there anywhere else you want to go, Kurusu-san?" Ann asked. Akira shook his head. "Well, when the bell rings, come back to the classroom we were in for you next lesson. See you later!" she said as she walked away.

Akira waited until Ann had disappeared far down the hallway before lying back against a wall and letting out an exhausted sigh.

"How are you doing?" Haru asked Akira.

"I'm exhausted and I miss home. Inaba was a lot less crowded than this..."

Haru offered him a sympathetic smile. "It is quite busy here, isn't it?"

"You're telling me..."

"It's why I stay with the flowers. People don't really come here and it's more peaceful." Haru laid against a wall next to Akira and let out a sigh. "It does get lonely sometimes, though."

"Well, I guess it's better than being in a crowd on your own?" Akira offered.

"Maybe."

"Though the flowers are a lot better here."

"Thank you." Haru shook her head. "It's strange..."

"What's strange?"

"The whole 'us getting married'. The way my father spoke about it, it sounded like this big, noble event that would change everything. But so far... It just seems to be like my normal life," she admitted.

"We're being forced to marry. I'm not sure what that has to do with a normal life."

"Sorry. What I mean is I thought I'd be living in a house, duty bound to be someone's wife. Instead, I'm still at school, I'm still tending to the garden."

"I'm sorry to disappoint you," Akira answered sarcastically.

"Don't worry, you haven't disappointed me." Haru said that with such reassurance that Akira decided not to tell her it was sarcasm. "But things will change soon, won't they?"

"Yeah."

"Then I hope I will make you happy." Haru stood up from the wall.

"Truth be told-" Akira stood up from the wall himself, "-I'm not happy about any of this at all. In the space of three days, I went from living happily at home to being married off and living in Tokyo."

"Oh, I'm sorry..." Haru looked down at the dirt below.

"Don't apologise, Haru. You haven't don't anything wrong. But if this is how we're going to spend the rest of our lives, then I'll do my best to help you, and to try to make you happy." Akira held a hand out to Haru, who'd looked back up at him. _Until I can get out of this deal,_ he thought.

Haru smiled, and shook his hand. "That would be lovely, Akira-kun," she said.

...

"...with the teacher's confession, the question remains this: why did he get away with it for so long? We may never know. Back to you in the studio."

"Ergh, even teachers can't be trusted nowadays," the barista commented.

Sae hummed while taking a sip of her coffee. "I wish I could've been the one to take him down."

"Shujin is where your sister studies as well, right?" he asked.

"She wasn't one of his victims, mercifully."

"Ah."

Sae placed the empty cup down on the counter. "Excellent as always, Sojiro. Thank you."

"Hmph." Sojiro had already started cleaning the cup as Sae exited Leblanc. Pulling her phone out of her pocket as a notification pinged, she allowed herself a cold smile as she read the message as she quickly set up a conference call.

"Queen, Crow, Mona?"

"We're here."

"What do you need, Jury?"

"It's time. Meet at the hideout, we have a celebration to plan."

...

_Author's Note: Will be time skips here and there to accomodate different events happening in story, but there should be two plots running at once in the story - Akira and Haru's plotline and the Phantoms Thieves' plotline. With luck, I should be able to keep this pace up. Hopefully you enjoyed this chapter._


	3. Chapter 3: Engagement

"So, Kurusu-kun." Kunikazu began, as they walked along the pavement. "How has my daughter been treating you? She has been good?"

"Y-yeah, she has. Haru's been a huge help to me here," he said, surprised at even being asked that.

"Good. I've taught her well. She should be of great assistance to you." The three of them walked in silence for a while, until Akira dropped back to talk to Haru in private.

"'Great assistance?' How old fashioned is he?" he asked in a quiet whisper.

"I'm supposed to help you in whatever endevours you undertake," she explained in a quiet voice. "That is the duty of the wife to the husband."

"But we aren't married yet! We shouldn't even be thinking about that," he hissed back, before straightening up as they caught back up with Kunikazu, who was waiting at a stop light.

"My daughter is doing well as a wife. That is good to hear. Perhaps she may even do me proud," he said as the light turned green and the three of them began to cross the road. "That would most certainly be-" Kunikazu suddenly stopped in the middle of the road.

"Father?" Haru called. "What's wrong?"

The light turned red. Haru only got a groan in response.

"Father!" Haru ran over to Kunikazu, who was now clutching at his chest. "Father, answer me!"

"Kunikazu-san!" Akira ran over to the man. "What's wrong?

No answer. Kunikazu's eyes rolled into the back of his head.

"Father, please!" Haru begged. "Father! Father!"

"Kunikazu-" Akira suddenly stopped trying to pull the man along, finding himself forced into standing still.

"Father!" Haru turned to Akira. "Akira-kun, what's wrong with him?" she practically demanded.

The groan that slid out of Akira's mouth caused all the remaining colour to drain from Haru's face. "Akira-kun? Please, Akira! What's wrong?!"

Akira physically couldn't respond. clutching at his chest as the god awful pain ripped through him, unable to think beyond the pain.

"Akira-kun! Father! Someone, please help us!"

...

The walls of the Okumura residence echoed with a horrific scream as Haru bolted upright in her bed, sweat pouring off her head as she gasped and panted for air.

"Father! A... Akira-kun!" She tried to say between breaths, before a security guard burst through the doors and came running into the room.

"Okumura-sama, what's wrong?" he asked.

"W-where's Father?" Haru stammered out. "Where is he?"

"Your father is in a meeting with investors. Why?"

"Please..." she whispered as she grabbed her phone and dialed his number.

_Ring..._

_Father, please be all right,_ she thought.

_Ring..._

"Okumura-sama?" the guard asked.

_Ring..-_"Haru?"

"Father, are you all right?" Haru asked, attempting to keep her voice as level as possible.

"Yes, I'm fine. What is the meaning of this? I'm in the middle of something," Kunikazu demanded.

"Oh... good." The thought of telling her father she had a bad dream about him felt childish. "N-nothing, you hadn't come home yet so I was worried..."

"Hmph." The click of the phone told Haru her father had hung up the phone.

She let out a relieved sigh and looked back at the security guard. "I'm sorry to have worried you. Thank you for the assistance," she told him. The guard bowed and walked out of the room, closing the door after him.

After the door closed, Haru climbed out of bed, wiping the still streaming tears out of her eyes and walked over to the window of her bedroom, dialing another number as she looked out at the night sky.

_If Father's alright, then Akira-kun should be too, _she thought as she waited for the phone to pick up. _And he's probably busy..._

"You have reached Makoto Niijima, but I am unavailable to take you call right now..." The recorded voice of Makoto played as Haru looked down at her phone to check the time.

_3:22am? _She thought. _Mako-chan must be asleep__, too._

_He might be asleep_she thought as she dialed the third number. To her surprise, the phone picked up. "Hello?" the voice answered sluggishly

"Akira-kun?" she asked, a hint of hesitance in her voice.

"Please don't call me that, it's just Akira-kun if we're at one of Shido's events. And how come you're calling me?" There was a brief pause, before Akira spoke again. "It's 3 in the morning, Haru..."

"I'm sorry," she said earnestly. "I, um..." Now she felt childish for wanting to tell Akira.

"What's wrong?"

"I... I um, I had a bad dream," she said, her voice dropping to a whisper as her cheeks warmed up in embarrassment.

"Oh." An awkward pause ensued. "Wanna talk about it?" he asked.

"Not really..."

The awkward pause returned, only to be chased off by the sounds of rustling on Akira's end. "I have some jokes I could tell you? It might make you feel better."

"Tell me them."

"Okay..." The rustling returned as Akira picked up a wrapper. "Why did two penguins jump when they first met?"

"I don't know. Why did two penguins jump when they first met?"

"They wanted to break the ice."

Haru started giggling, the fear from earlier beginning to fade even as she dried her eyes again. "That's from the Pinguen bars, right? I love those jokes."

"Yeah. Shido has a lot of these bars for some reason. Maybe he likes them?"

"Could you tell me any more?" she asked.

"Yeah, sure." More rustling commenced. "Why do two penguins in a nest always agree?"

"I don't know, why do two penguins in a nest always agree?"

...

"So Kamoshida confessed." Sae walked over to her table and pulled out a chair to sit on. "The police will be looking into his case and interviewing people who have had dealings with him in the past."

"Then that means your first job as Phantom Thieves was a success!" Morgana said as he hopped up onto the table Sae was sat at.

"So, what now? You mentioned holding a celebration over Kamoshida's arrest as well as our first successful mission. When should we do it?" Makoto asked as she gazed down at her phone, sending a quick message off before looking up. "Sis, you and Akechi have the busiest schedules, so we should work around you two."

"No need." Akechi didn't bother to look over at the trio from the window he was stood at, instead continuing to observe the birds tweeting in the trees outside. "I know Sae and I are free today. Makoto, didn't you say your friend had booked a table at that buffet place?"

"Yes..."

"We could go there."

"It's most likely already booked up."

"Leave that to me. Give me the phone number of the place." Makoto passed over her phone to Akechi as he pulled his phone out of his pocket. He looked down at the number in Makoto's phone before typing it into his. "Hi, I would like to book a table for three?"

Makoto glanced at Sae, who simply shrugged as if to say 'Leave it.'

"Goro Akechi. Yes, that Akechi. Ah, that is wonderful. Thank you." He hung up the phone and turned around to face Sae and Makoto. "The life of a celebrity does have some advantages. We have a table booked for this evening."

"And we can use the money that we got from pawning Kamoshida's medal to pay for it," Morgana explained. "Good work, Akechi."

The Niijima sisters looked over at him as he handed Makoto's phone back to her. "Didn't think I'd be going out to dinner at a buffet tonight," she said.

"Would you have preferred we find somewhere else to eat at?" Akechi asked as he looked at Sae.

"No. But then again, it wasn't on my list of priorities after we got brought into that palace. Speaking of," Sae turned to look at Morgana, "why were you in there in the first place? Makoto and I were brought in by the Metaverse app."

"I don't really remember," Morgana admitted.

"But you're sure you're human?" Makoto asked.

"Yeah, I'm sure of it! I just need to find a way to turn back into a human, that's all." Sae and Makoto shared a skeptical glance for being interrupted by Akechi clearing his throat.

"Well, if that's everything, I'm going to head for home to prepare for the meal. I will meet you all there," he said as he walked towards the door.

"Goro," Sae called. "Thank you for your help."

"I should be the one thanking you three for rescuing me from that man's trap in the palace, Sae. I wouldn't like to think of what could've happened if you all hadn't helped me." Akechi waved as he walked out of the door and closed it behind him.

...

"Well, it certainly lives up to it's name of a buffet," Sae observed from her seat at the table.

The three of them had met up outside the entrance to the buffet, and had promptly made their way into the building, being shown to their table within minutes of entering.

"I agree. The aethestics of this place are rather marvelous." Akechi looked over at the tables containing food, where Makoto was busy piling food onto her plate.

"Is she still getting food? I hope she brings some back for me," Morgana grumbled as he waited in Makoto's handbag, which Sae promptly pushed lightly. "Hey!"

"You're supposed to be being quiet. If they find you, they'll throw us all out," Sae reminded him.

"Yeah, right...

Meanwhile, Makoto was adding a last few things to her plate at one of the buffet tables when a familiar face appeared next to her. "Mako-chan?"

"Haru?" she said as she glanced up at the person next to her.

"I'm surprised to see you here. I thought you were going for a meal with Sae-san." To which Makoto glanced over at Sae and Akechi, Haru following her gaze. "Ah. It's good to see Sae-san's doing okay. I didn't know you knew Akechi-kun, Mako-chan."

"He works with Sis on cases sometimes, so we invited him with us," she explained, before turning back to Haru. "You're welcome to come and sit with us."

"I appreciate the offer," Haru said, the light catching on the ring on her finger as she fiddled with it, "but I'm already having a meal with someone else."

Wait.

A ring?!

"Haru, is that a ring?" Makoto asked in surprise.

Haru giggled, and raised her hand up to allow Makoto to inspect it. "Yes. I am engaged to someone."

"Wha-" Makoto's mouth flopped open and shut like a fish for a few moments, before she finally got the words out. "When?"

"Today. We're going to announce it soon," she explained.

"Wha- Who?"

To which Haru now glanced over at the boy sat down at a table, who caught her glance and signalled an 'are you okay?' to her. "His name is Akira, and he goes to our school."

"W-well..." Makoto finally pulled herself back together. "I'm surprised you didn't tell me you were with him."

Haru smiled and nodded to Akira, before turning back to Makoto. "To be honest, I didn't know either. But he's treating me well and is very kind, so you don't need to worry."

_You didn't know? Then that means..._

"Oh, I see. Well, I hope you have a good meal," Makoto said as she picked up her plate.

"You too, Mako-chan." Haru smiled at her as Makoto walked away, plate in hand, mind whirling to understand what Haru had just told her.

_Haru's being forced to marry someone?_ she thought as she sat down at the table, looking over at the boy who was to marry Haru. _That's not right at all._

...

_Author's Note: Twelve follows on FFN, Nine story subscriptions on AO3. In total, 21 people are waiting for new chapters of A Wedding in Tokyo._

_Holy shit._

_I was not expecting this level of interest. I don't know what the average is for Persona stories, but for me, that is a lot of people. It's more than Educating Makoto has._

_Thank you all for taking the time to look at my story, it means so much for so many people to_ _be interested in this. I hope I don't let you down with what I have planned._

_But now, the e__ngagement is ago. We will be jumping through time to different events from here, just needed to set things up first. Hope you all enjoyed this chapter._


	4. Chapter 4: Date

"...Caduceus are holding an international conference to discuss the recent innovation of antibiotics that can fight off super bacteria and super viruses, and how we can use them more efficently to slow the development of viruses that resist them. That will be on later today-"

"They finally got around to making them? They certainly took their time with it," Sae observed as she drummed her fingers impatiently on the steering wheel.

"Science should not be rushed if it's to benefit people, Sis." Makoto glanced up at her sister, who acknowledged the comment with a slight tick of a nod. "At least we have them.

"-and now, onto our main story. The fall out from another confession continues, as more and more artists have now condemned Madarame's acts, calling it 'a crime against artists around the world-"

"That's us." Akechi leaned over the car seat to look at the phone in Makoto's hand, Morgana carefully balancing on his shoulder to get a good view of the phone as well.

"Madarame, who recently confessed to plagarising his students work, including the world famous 'Sayuri', has been condemned by artists around the world for his actions, with many calling his actions 'crimes against artists and aesthetes from around the world.' Madarame was recently taken into custody by the police to investigate additional claims of abuse towards his students."

"There we go." Sae turned the ignition key and started the car, beginning to reverse out of the parking space they had been in. "Another criminal taken care of. That makes two for us."

"So it's true that he abused them?" Makoto asked in surprise.

"Possibly. The student who asked Sae to model for them had been reluctant to say anything negative against Madarame, and from what was in his palace, it does not appear like he saw them as anything more than something he could use to get art. Him abusing them would not be that much of a stretch," Akechi explained as he settled down in the car seat, Morgana climbing off of his shoulder and onto his lap.

"But until people come forward and actually say he abused them, there's no point in speculating." Sae rolled her eyes as a car cut her off when she was going to turn onto another road.

"I guess..." Makoto looked down at her phone and swiped away the news broadcast. "We've done everything we can for them, right?"

"Yeah. Now we just need to give the Sayuri back to its original owner. We did put it in the car, right?" Morgana asked.

"Yes, we did. Remember? Sis and I moved it in before we picked Akechi up."

"Oh, yeah. I was in the bag in the car already."

"This is the place." Sae parked the car on the pavement and put the brake on, turning the ignition off as she did. "Makoto, stay here. Akechi and I will hand Sayuri over."

"Right. Excuse me, Morgana." Akechi gently placed Morgana on the other seat as he opened the door and climbed out of the car, Sae following him shortly.

"Morgana, can I ask something?" Makoto asked.

"What's up?" the not-a-cat asked as the boot of the car opened up, with Sae reaching inside to retrieve the painting.

"Uh..." Makoto was slient for a while, attempting to formulate the words to ask about an issue that was bothering her. "Is there a way to see if a person is good or bad?"

"Good or bad? I don't think so. All I really know is if someone's desires are very twisted, then they will have a palace we can go to. Why, is something wrong?" Morgana stretched up and placed his front paws on the seat in front of him as he looked at her as the boot slammed shut behind them.

"N-no, not right now. I'm just thinking ahead, if we meet someone new and check the navigator to see if they have a palace, we might be able to sort their issues out for them."

"Hmmm..." Morgana thought about it for a moment, before shaking his head and jumping back onto the seat he had been placed on. "Nah. It's a good thought, but we should only go into their palace if we all think it will help them. There's no telling what might happen if we just steal the treasures of every palace we come across.

"I see. Thank you." Makoto turned away to watch Sae and Akechi walk down the path towards the building. _So I should leave Haru be, __for now_.

Meanwhile, Sae and Akechi had arrived at the door to the house and were knocking on the door.

"I have already said, I do not wish to be disturbed," a voice began as the door opened. "I will not answer any more questions about-Niijima-senpai?"

"Yusuke Kitagawa?" Sae asked.

"Yes, that is my name."

"After Madarame was taken into custody, we found something that we believe belongs to you, and we wish to return it," she explained, gesturing to the painting Akechi had in his arms. "May we come in?"

...

"I've never had so many people speak to me before... It's so strange."

"Same here. I wish I could just hide."

Haru gave him a sympathetic smile. "Then it's good that we're up here, then. No one comes up here anymore, now that it's supposed to be locked off."

"Good thing you have a key for the door then."

Haru giggled and turned to the plant pots. "Yes."

It had been a month since their engagement had been announced to the world. As Akira feared, it had drawn a lot of attention. He'd had to show off so many different suits and outfits, smiled for so many cameras, answered so many questions, lying by the skin of his teeth at times... His only comfort was that he was not alone in this, but Haru had had years of preparation for this, so she was more used to the trials and life of living under the limelight.

It would've made him envious if he didn't see the cracks in the persona she was putting on for the cameras. She was just as tired as he was.

"The flowers are growing well," Akira observed as he lifted one of the plant pots up onto a ledge, angling it so the seedlings could get enough sunlight for when they started to grow.

"Yes, they are. I think it's time to pull the vegetables out as well," Haru said as she lifted the last pot onto the other ledge.

"Then let's get those sorted." Akira strode over to one of the pots Haru had set on the ground and promptly grabbed the head of one of the plants inside and started pulling it. "This one's... really stuck in!"

"Wait, Akira." Haru moved past him and crouched down next to the plant pot, gently moving the soil around before grabbing the stalk of the plant and pulling it out easily. "You didn't have a good grip on it. Hold it by the stalk, not the head.

"Right, my bad." Akira grabbed the next by the stalk instead of the head and sure enough, it came out a lot easier this time. "That's a lot easier. Thank you."

"You're welcome."

The two worked together in silence after that, transferring the vegetables they had pulled from the pots to the bag Haru had brought up with them to the roof of the school. With them both pulling the plants and storing them, they were able to quickly finish pulling the plants.

"That's the last one. Thank you for helping me, Akira."

"It's fine. But what are you going to do with the vegetables?" Akira asked.

"There is a café in Yongen-Jaya that I go to frequently with Mako-chan and her sister. I want to take them there and have the café owner look them over," Haru explained.

"Oh?" Akira looked at her in surprise, before a lightbulb went off in his head. "If you wanted, we could go there together. It would be nice to spend some time outside without any cameras following us."

"Like a date?" Haru asked, before frowning down at her attire. "I'm not really dressed for a date, and I'm not sure the café would be considered nice enough... Father's always talking about how people like me should go to the best establishments..."

Akira shook his head, letting out a short chuckle. "It's fine, Haru. It's more about spending time together than where we go anyway," he explained.

"That doesn't sound right..."

"That's what I was told when I was growing up." Akira straightened up and dusted off his hands. "If you don't want to, it's fine."

"Hmm. I don't see a reason not to, so... Yes, I would like that. We'll head there after school." Haru gave Akira a warm smile. "Thank you, Akira."

"It's fine."

...

The phone rang thrice, before the click of the phone told Shido that the other person had picked up. "I wasn't expecting a call this soon."

"I assume you've seen the news?" Shido asked as he stared at the TV in front of him.

"The piece about Madarame? Yes. Who would have thought a world famous artist would be guilty of plagarising from his own students?" the voice on the other end asked.

"That's the second one in two months."

"Hmm?"

"The school teacher, Kamoshida, confessed in a similar way at that school. Madarame marks the second," Shido explained.

"Do you think they are linked?"

"No. But it may be something worth keeping an eye on." Shido turned away from the TV and walked over to the window, looking out over the Tokyo skyline. "Any updates on the mafia case?"

"We have a name, but we do not have any evidence against him-"

"I'm calling in a favour." Shido cut him off. "What is his name?"

"Jurya Kaneshiro."

"Excellent. I will be in touch soon." Shido cut the call off, flicking the screen on his phone over to the newest app on his phone and pressing it. "Jurya Kaneshiro." he spoke out loud.

"Palace detected."

Shido allowed a small smile to form on his face, as he gazed down at his phone. "So you have one too..."

...

The jingling of the door bell alerted Sojiro to the arrival of customers. Turning away from the TV, he was greeted by the sight of two tired, but smiling, teenagers.

"Sakura-san," Haru greeted the barista as she took her bag off of her shoulder, the boy next to her glancing at him with curiousity. "I'm sorry for asking this of you, but I was wondering if you could help me with something."

"Hmm? Oh, Haru. Of course. What do you need?"

"Well..." Haru lifted the bag onto the counter of the café, setting it down with a hefty thud. "I have been growing these on the school rooftop at Shujin, and I wanted to get the honest opinion of a culinary professional on them," she explained.

"Ah, I see. Go ahead," Sojiro said as he grabbed a plate and placed it down next to the bag. Akira nodded and reached inside the bag to help Haru pull the various assorted vegetables out for Sojiro to inspect.

"I will need to try them first, so..." Sojiro produced a knife and fork out from under the counter and cut a few pieces off of the veg to try. "Hm. Both the taste and the appearance are the opposite of what I would call market-grade, but it's impressive that you managed to grow anything at all on a rooftop of all places," he explained.

"I see. I'm honoured to hear you say that," Haru said.

Akira had noticed the drop in her shoulders when he had mentioned that it wasn't "market-grade", whatever that had meant. "There's something good to it, though, right?" he asked.

"Well..." Sojiro scritched the back of his head. "It didn't taste good, but it felt somewhat refreshing. Like feeling good after taking bitter medicine."

_We'll take that and go_, Akira thought.

"Thank you very much for the input, Sakura-san. I'll take note of that."

"Could we get two coffees?" Akira asked, drawing the barista's attention to him.

"Sure. Take a seat in the booth, I'll bring it over." Sojiro walked over to the other end of the counter and started making a cup of coffee.

"I first discovered the plant in my house, so it's possible it was an experimental breed created by father's company..." Haru explained to Akira as she walked over to take a seat in the booth, Akira following her over to take a seat opposite her.

"An experimental breed?" Akira asked.

"Yes. Okumura Foods are always creating new types of vegetables for use in their products. It's possible these are some that father left at home one day."

"Oh."

"But still... Sakura-san's right. That was the same thought I had about them being refreshing."

"Mind if I try one?"

Haru smiled and nodded. Akira picked up the knife and fork Sojiro had left on the plate and cut a piece off, and began eating it.

Akira's response was immediate. He lurched backwards against the booth seat, his face contorting into a very weird expression that set Haru off into a fit of laughter. "That-that's very bitter. Oh God, that's bitter," he gasped as he placed the remnant of the vegetable down.

"I'm-I'm so sorry! Ah, I-" Haru tried to get out in between peals of laughter, but to no avail.

At least until she snorted and hid behind her hands in surprise, setting Akira off into a fit of laughter.

"What are you two laughing about?" Sojiro asked as he brought over the two coffees they had ordered. Neither teen could respond for a moment as Haru had begun laughing again. "Hm. Come over to the counter and pay once you've finished," he said as he walked away.

"I-oh God, oh God..." Akira gasped as he finally stopped laughing. "I haven't laughed that hard in years..."

"Ah-I-I haven't either..." Both teens finally managed to calm down before turning their attention to the coffees Sojiro had brought over.

Taking a sip of the coffee, Haru glanced down at the vegetables. "Still, he was right," Haru said with a sigh. "The taste leaves a lot to be desired."

"It's something you can work on, right?" Akira asked as he drained his cup without it ever leaving his lips.

"Yes-wait, the coffee might be hot!" she called out as he finished it.

"Hot?" Akira put the cup down. "I've had worse."

"Oh." Haru quickly finished her cup as he poured the vegetables back into the bag. "Right..."

Akira pulled some yen out of his pocket to cover for the coffees as Sojiro walked over. "Come back anytime," he said as he took the payment.

"Thank you, Sakura-san," Haru said as she picked up the bag. The two left the café, only for Haru to stop as she felt something pittering down on her head.

It's raining? Haru thought as she looked up at the now miserable grey sky. Of course it's raining.

Beside her, Akira walked past her, umbrella in hand, other hand held out, checking to see how bad it was.

Rain, he thought. Not bad enough to warrant putting the umbrella up yet but-

"Akira?" Haru called out from behind him, putting up her own umbrella. "You're going to catch a cold if you stay out in the rain."

Akira didn't answer. Instead, he decided to have a bit of fun. Planting the head of the umbrella into the ground, he kicked it and spun it over his shoulder, crossing his legs as he walked across the pavement, before rounding off the routine with a jump and a click of his heels.

"I know," he answered, before turning around and smirking. "I think you'll want a wanted poster for your jaw," he said coolly as he walked towards her.

Haru laughed in response. "I suppose so, it wouldn't be nice to not have it for our next date."

The smirk instantly vanished, along with Akira's jaw. "Ah-This was supposed to be-Haru, I'm so sorry."

Haru looked at him in confusion, before her face brightened as she remembered. "Oh, right! It's fine, I had a good time anyway."

"Oh." An idea popped into Akira's head, and he held out his hand as he put his umbrella up, a warm smile accompanying his hand. "Shall we head home?"

Haru smiled back at him, and took his hand. "Yes, we shall."

...

_Author's Note:__ So how about that P5R? I'm not waiting til 2020 to get it, I'll import and figure it out as I go._

_Also, re__member how I was amazed at getting 21 people interested in the fic?_

_Between the last update and this one, that number more than doubled. We now have 44 people interested, 19 on FFN, 25 on AO3._

_I know I probably shouldn't be constantly bringing this up, but that's an insane number for me. To have so many people following along is amazing._

_But anyways, apologies if this chapter seems all over the place, I've spent a fair while longer working on it than I thought I would. Hopefully you all enjoyed it._


	5. Chapter 5: Entity

"...Further arrests have been made by the police in regards to the recent arrest of Jurya Kaneshiro, who many are claiming had his heart changed by a group called the 'Phantom Thieves'. This group, who have recently been called upon by a group called 'Medjed' to turn themselves in under threat of their identities being exposed, have supposedly also had a hand in the recent confessions of Madarame and Kamoshida..."

"These Phantom Thieves keep popping up in the news," Akira grunted as he continued to do push ups on the floor of the living room. "Twenty five, twenty six..."

"Yes. One of the people they supposedly made confess, Kamoshida, was a teacher at our school before you started," Haru explained to Akira, who'd stopped mid push up to look at her.

"Was he the one who confessed in front of the entire school?"

"Yes."

"Huh. Ann mentioned that a teacher had confessed. So the Phantom Thieves supposedly made him confess..." Akira resumed his push ups as Haru looked back towards the TV. "Wonder if they can make Shido-"

The doorbell rang, drawing the duo's attention to the door.

"I think that's the artist," Haru said as she stood up from the seat and turned the TV off, brushing down her outfit. Akira quickly stood up, wiping his face down with a towel before the two exited the living room to see Shido and two guards walking towards the front door.

"Good morning," the voice at the door answered as the guards opened it. "I am Yusuke Kitagawa, I believe I was hired to do a portrait of someone?"

"That's correct." Shido nodded to the guards, who gestured to Yusuke to walk into the building. "We have a room already prepared for you, the guards will take you there now."

"That's them."

"So what now?" Akira asked.

"Well-"

"Excellent timing. The artist has arrived and will be ready for you shortly," Shido explained as he walked over towards the two.

"Thank you, Shido-san." Haru flashed a reassuring smile towards Akira before walking past Shido towards where the two guards were waiting.

"As for you." Shido turned to grimace at Akira, who was topless due to his workout routine, "If you think you'll make your fiancé and me look bad by walking around like that, you're wrong. This isn't some house in Inaba. Go and get dressed," he ordered as he walked past him into the living room.

"This _is_ decent..." Akira grumbled as he turned to walk up the stairs to the bedrooms.

"Not for Tokyo. Go."

Akira ignored the last comment and made his way upstairs, towel in hand. "Haru didn't seem to mind and she's from Tokyo. She even seems to like it!" he muttered under his breath as he made his way into his bedroom. Tossing the towel onto a chair (Akira could already imagine the vein popping out of Shido's head at the scene of a dirty towel on a ¥50,000 leather chair), he began to rummage through the drawer for a t-shirt to wear, pulling one quickly over his head.

When Akira looked up from the drawers to look in the mirror and fix his hair however, he spotted something out of the corner of his eye. Turning around, he saw that something was peeking in on him. It locked eyes with him, giving Akira time to process what it was.

"A cat?"

Akira could've sworn the cat smirked at him before turning around and walking away. Akira promptly ran out of his room in time to see it a black blur run into Shido's room.

_Oh no. If Shido finds it..._

Akira did not want a repeat of when Shido had found a mouse running around the kitchen. He'd been "merciful" to it, but the blood stains still hadn't been fully cleaned up yet. He needed to get it out of the house before Shido found it. Running quickly into Shido's room, he pushed open the door in time to see the cat sat in of a bookcase.

Before he could say anything, the cat jumped up on top of a desk and leapt on top of the bookcase, knocking something down in the process.

"Get back here!" Akira hissed to the cat, only for it to look over at him and let out what sounded like a snigger before jumping towards him. Akira stumbled backwards and caught himself on the door as the cat ran past him and away out of an open window on the landing.

"Stupid cat..." he muttered before walking back into Shido's room to see what had been knocked over, hoping to clean up the mess the cat had created in its adventure. Surprisingly, not much had been dislodged with how quickly the cat had moved around, allowing Akira to swiftly clean up the fur the cat had left. The only major thing he was worried about was the shiny metal object the cat had knocked off, which Akira picked up and began to inspect.

No cracks, no noticable damage aside from some chipped edges, yet the shape of it caused Akira to feel a slight sense of unease holding it. The silver metal gleamed in the sunlight streaming into the room, and reflected off of the letters on the other side as he turned it around.

"SEES..."

The name held no meaning to him, but he suspected Shido would know. But why was this here? Why did Shido have what looked like a gun?

**"Keep it."**

Akira's head whipped around in panic, afraid Shido had discovered him snooping around in his room, but there was no one else there. Just him.

"Who said that?" He asked quietly.

No response was given. Akira looked down at the gun object in his hands, his discomfort with the object growing. Why should he keep it?

**"The time will come when you will need it. I can give you a way out, but you will need to keep it.**"

"Who are you?" Akira asked again, looking around the room once again.

No answer was given.

"So I should keep it?"

"**Yes. Keep it until you need it.**"

"That makes no sense, but..." Sighing reluctantly, Akira tucked the gun thing into his pocket and finished tidying up evidence of the cat's presence before closing Shido's door behind him.

He'd need to find somewhere to hide it if he was going to keep it.

...

All was quiet in the Niijima household. The birds outside were singing, the bees were buzzing around gathering nectar, and the only sounds inside the house was the exhausted panting of the Niijima sisters and Akechi as they collapsed onto the chairs in the living room.

"Never... again..." Akechi gasped as he loosened his tie in an attempt to cool down. Neither lady responded until Sae pushed herself back up out of the chair she had sank into, stumbling over to the sink to get a drink of water.

"I thought the court room was hot enough..."

"Where even was that? Egypt?" Makoto asked as she wiped the remaining sweat out of her eyes.

"I don't think so." Sae took a drink from her cup and let out a sigh as the cool water ran down her parched neck. "From what Mona told us, Palaces seem to be developed from the twisted desires of their hosts. That was most likely what Futaba percieved the world around her to be like. Speaking of which," she said as she looked at her phone, "she got out safely and wants to see us."

"That is excellent." Akechi reluctantly stood up out of the seat with a groan, his exhausted legs begging for a rest. "When shall we go?"

"Tomorrow." Sae placed the now empty cup down on the counter. "You two need to rest and wait for Mona to come back and I need to visit someone. I shouldn't be too long," she explained as she started limping towards the door.

"Are you sure?" Makoto struggled up to her feet now. "You're limping, sis."

"I'll be fine," Sae said, dismissively waving a hand to Makoto before hobbling over to the door and walking out of it, leaving Makoto and Akechi behind.

"Niijima," a small voice next to her called, drawing her attention to the small girl next to the shimmering blue door on her right. "He is ready to see you."

"Thank you," Sae answered, before limping through the door, the girl following after her.

The Velvet Room, as the girl had called it when Sae had first met her, always astounded Sae whenever she walked in. Two jury stands had been erected either side of the entrance, and were filled with some of the Personas she had met in the palaces, while the podium the judge would sit at was placed in its usual spot in front of the door. Sae walked through into the room and stood before the podium, internally thankful for the cool air helping her to cool off.

"Welcome to the Velvet Room," Igor announced from his place atop the podium. "How goes the work of the Thieves?"

"We've successfully stolen another treasure. That marks four palaces so far."

"Indeed. You all are growing at a remarkable pace. If you continue at the rate you have set, you will become powerful enough to be of assistance to me in our endeavor, which brings me to the matter I wish to discuss." Igor stood up and descended from the podium, bringing himself down to the ground to stand face to face with Sae. "We have located the Demiurge."

"Where?"

"In Tokyo."

"Is it alone? Does it have anyone aiding it?"

"No and yes. As we suspected, after it was stopped in its attempt to take over the Velvet Room seven years ago, it took control of someone in Japan."

"And they're here now."

"Yes. It is of extreme importance that you and the Phantom Thieves begin to prepare for the eventuality of meeting it and its host."

"And bringing it to justice before it can enact it's plans."

"No." Igor frowned. "For the safety of the world, it and its host must both be destroyed."

Sae's eyes narrowed, and she folded her arms. "We've spared everyone else. The mob boss, the teacher and the plagarist were all allowed to live. Why does its host have to die?"

"Even though they did not choose to be controlled, they have caused enough death and destruction that they will have become synonymous with its existence."

"But even so, they should be allowed a chance to confess all they have done."

"It is not as simple as a shadow in a Palace." Igor turned and began to ascend the stairs to his podium. "Even if you choose to spare them, they may not be willing to live without it. They may even attempt to resubmit to it. A moment of mercy could spell doom for the entire world, and that is risk you cannot afford to take."

Sae sighed and looked down at the blue carpet beneath her, removing her mask and the wig attatched to it. "Does the host have a name?"

"Not that we have found yet. All we know is that they possess a tool that was used by a group seven years ago to seal away another deity. They are to be considered extremely dangerous, and you are not to engage them unless I tell you to. They desire to control the world, to ensure that everything happens according to the plans they have." Igor seated himself back on the podium, clasping his hands together and looking down at Sae. "Now go and rest. You have done well so far, but you still have a ways to go."

"So, that is it?"

"Yes."

"You're hiding something from me. If you want me to take this Demiurge thing down, you'll need to give me more to work with."

Igor allowed himself a small smile. "How astute of you," he said simply. "Very well. Your fellow Thieves."

"What about them?"

"They appear to have more information than you on where it is residing currently."

Sae's eyes widened, but she nodded, and slipped her mask back on before limping back out of the room.

"You didn't tell her everything," the little girl observed from next to the podium.

"No. But all will make sense to her in time. Continue watching over her, Lavenza."

"I will."

...

_Author's Note: Hmmm... I wonder who the Demiurge could be controlling?_

_If Lavenza is OOC, I do apologise, I __have not finished a NG run yet, so I don't know what she is fully like, yet. Sorry for the short chapter, wasn't sure what to write for this one. Will be adding chapter titles from here on out, so keep an eye out for them._


	6. Chapter 6: Hawaii Trip

_Author's Note: As a reminder, beware of the review section if you're a new reader and have joined us here, you might be spoiled on some of the twists and plot points in the story._

_..._

The knocking at the door startled Futaba and made her panic slightly, before a voice called through the door. "Futaba? It's me, Akechi. You said you needed to speak with me about something?"

"You are too slow, Goro!" Futaba called back, before the door to her room creaked open and Akechi poked his head through the door.

"My apologies, I had to fill out paperwork for the last case. I would've been here sooner otherwise," he explained.

"Uh huh. Does Sae know about your little investigation?"

"Well..."

"She's not some level one crook, pancake boi. You should tell her about it since it could help us with a future target," Futaba warned him, not once looking behind her throughout their entire conversation, too busy typing away at a keyboard in front of her PC.

"I will! It just got dropped on me is all!"

"That's why you've spent the last two days in that little office trying to access Sae's case files?"

"How do you know about that?" Akechi retorted, stepping fully into the room as he spoke.

Futaba flinched at the harsh tone in Akechi's voice, but carried on needling him. "You should know you can't hide anything from me, 'Detective Prince'."

"And you should better than to snoop around in people's private lives, Futaba!"

Futaba prepared to fire back when Morgana jumped off the top of the computer tower where he had been resting and landed in front of her, shaking his head. "Can we talk about what you asked him to come here for, please?" he asked.

"Right!" Futaba pulled up a string of code on her computer. "So after I beat down those fake Medjed people - which you're welcome for, by the way - I decided to look into the code that they use. Normally, it's the same as mine, copied number for number, 0 for 0, 1 for 1, which is kind of like how the Neo Feathermen always use similar colour schemes whenever a new group come into play, so the Jurassic Team ended up looking like the Universal Group." Futaba spun her chair around to face Akechi now. "Do you think they do it intentionally to sell new action figures?" she asked him.

"Quite possibly." Akechi sat down on the bed, looking at Futaba. "I mean, companies like Manday would make more money if there were a larger variety of action figures to buy, but even so, wouldn't it make more sense to use different colours? There's so many more colours than blue, red, green, pink-"

"We're getting distracted," Morgana said, interrupting them.

"Oh yeah!" Futaba spun back around to her PC. "So the coding is normally copy pasted from my old stuff. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, after all!" She opened up another window, showing some more lines of code. "But see?"

Akechi squinted at the screen. "I can't read code," he bluntly stated.

Futaba scowled and pointed at one window. "That is the coding from the fake Medjed. Medjeders? MJs? But this," she said, pointing proudly at the other window. "is my code."

"So..." Futaba turned around eagerly to look at Akechi. "...it's different?"

"Ex-actly! Ten points to pancake boi over here!" Futaba spun back around to face the computer once more.

"Don't call me that..."

"So if it's not the same coding, it means it's brand new. Which means the people pretending to be me are not just some lucky script kiddie who cheated their way to being a level 10 mobster, they're actually a hacker, or programmer, like me."

Morgana frowned. "That's bad then."

"Hmm... So if they were behind this, they will most likely try again in some way or another."

"Yep!"

"So we should let them."

"Wait." Futaba actually stood out of her chair to face him this time. "What?"

"If we let them come after us again in some way, you should be able to stop them, yes?"

"Of course! I'll stop them with a snap of my fingers!" Futaba boasted proudly.

"...And then you could trace them back and find out who they are," Morgana piped up from behind them.

"And from there, we can find out who they are and possibly change their hearts."

"Wow." Futaba looked between Morgana and Akechi, smiling. "That would be awesome! Nice thinking, you two."

"We just need to tell the others now."

"Makoto doesn't come back from Hawaii for another day, though," Morgana reminded them. "We should wait for her first."

"Oh yeah." Before any of them could say anything further, a rumble emerged from Futaba's stomach.

"Futaba, when did you last eat?" Akechi asked with concern."

"Erm, a few minutes ago?"

"_Six_ hours ago."

"Morgana!" Futaba whined as the not-a-cat attempted to roll his eyes.

Akechi shook his head. "We should go to Leblanc then, and get some food."

"Fine..." Futaba stood up from her chair and quickly grabbed her coat. "Last one to Leblanc pays!" She called as she ran out of the room, Morgana hot on her heels telling her to slow down.

Akechi waited for a few moments to ensure she wasn't going to come back for something before quickly standing up and walking over to Futaba's PC. "There should be something here..." he muttered as he opened up a couple of folders and started looking through them, trying to find a program, a document, anything that could-

"Ahem." Akechi straightened up in alarm and turned around to see Futaba standing by the door, eyebrow raised, phone in hand showing a notification. "It's rude to use other people's stuff without permission, Goro," she said tauntingly, Morgana sat smirking behind her.

"Ah..." Akechi straighened up his collar and put on his best smile. "I can explain."

...

"So what do you think of Hawaii?"

Akira looked up from his phone to glance over at Ann, who was looking at him expectantly. He shrugged. "It's hot. And sunny. I keep thinking I'm going to burst into flames every time I go out there."

"Not used to the heat?" she asked. Akira shook his head. "Shiho isn't either. I think she spent most of today standing in front of the fans, trying to keep cool," she admitted with a small giggle. Akira smiled, before the sound of people walking down the stairs drew their attention over to the corridor next to them.

"I'm ready, Ann."

Ann sprung up out of her chair and ran over to look over Shiho. "I told you you'd look good in it!"

"Thank you." Shiho looked down at her feet in embarassment as she gestured to the red head next to her. "I wasn't sure how it was supposed to look, but Kasumi..."

"We did our best." The redhead called Kasumi nodded her head towards Akira. "Is he coming?"

"Nope, he's busy. Now let's go before your school finds out you're in our hotel!" Ann turned around and began to walk out of the hotel, with Shiho and Kasumi in tow. "Bye Akira!"

"See you." Akira returned to looking at his phone. Haru had mentioned she would take a few minutes to get ready, so he'd just been scrolling through his phone, looking at various news articles. "Stocks, Phantom Thieves, Shido, Phantom Thieves, new games, Phantom Thieves..." he murmured to himself as he idly clicked and back keyed, clicked and back keyed, clicked on a site dedicated to the Phantom Thieves...

The Phantom Thieves seemed to be everywhere now. Back when he had first arrived in Tokyo, he'd heard rumours, whispers about them, how they made the volleyball coach confess to abusing students, including Ann and her friend, Shiho.

Haru had, mercifully, not been one of his victims, but knowing he'd been allowed to prey on the students had made both of them sick.

Since then, Akira had noticed that they had been featured on the news more than more. An artist who stole his students' paintings, a mafia who pulled students into debt, all stopped by these so called Phantom Thieves. An internet hacker had challenged them, and had been stopped as well. They were the talk of Shujin, of the internet.

Now there wasn't a rumour going round that didn't feature them. One such rumour was that their leader was a student at Shujin, apparently. Being asked if he was a Phantom Thief was a humourous change from the usual questions.

"Akira?"

The boy looked behind him to be greeted by the sight of Haru, causing him to stand up. "Hey."

Beneath the brim of her oversized sun hat, Haru smiled. "You wore your swim wear," she observed.

"And a jacket." Akira glanced down at his sleeveless jacket and gestured at her. "It'll keep me cool while we're out there." A small smirk formed on his face as an idea came to him, and he started flexing his arms. "Plus who'd want to hide these babies?" he asked, setting Haru off giggling again before she flexed her own arms.

"I think mine are bigger."

_That they are,_ Akira thought as he gazed at the muscles on her arms, until a short "Ahem" snapped him out of his reviere and made him blush slightly. "Sorry. Shall we?" he asked, holding a hand out to her.

"Yes. Let's go," she said, taking his hand and walking outside of the hotel into the heat once more.

"Thank you for agreeing to come out here with me. Being a chaperone has been keeping me busy, so I didn't really get much time to enjoy the sun while we were here," Haru explained as they set off walking towards the beach.

"It's fine. How are you finding it?" he asked.

"It's a lot different to Tokyo," Haru admitted, looking up at one of the palm trees dotting the beach. "It's amazing... The people here are so lively and free. They all look like they're having so much fun."

"They do. Must be nice living here." he mused.

"How are you finding it?" Haru asked.

Akira shrugged and smirked. "With a map."

"What do you mean, with a map?"

"I roll the map up and poke people with it until they tell me where to go."

Haru laughed at that, before noticing something else and walking towards it. "Is that a food stand?"

"Looks like it to me. Gar-lic shrimp...?" he read aloud.

"I believe that's a local delicacy." Haru looked at the prices on the board before fishing her hat off and pulling some coins out of the inside of it.

"You're keeping your money under your hat?"

"Of course. Where else am I supposed to keep it in a bathing suit?"

"But what if it blows away?"

"It won't get far, it only has change inside of it."

"Then where do you keep the notes?"

"Do you really wish to know?"

Akira took the hint immediately and looked away, a dusting of red settling on his cheeks as they walked over to the stall. "Got it."

"You two from Japan?" the stall owner asked as he took the change from Haru and set about making the food.

"We are. We're currently visiting with our school," Haru explained.

"How 'bout them Phantom Thieves, huh? The guys that steal hearts! They're all the rage in Japan, yeah?"

"They must be getting famous if they're being talked about over here," Haru observed.

"Either that or he's a japanophile."

"Pardon?"

"Someone obsessed with Japan."

"Like the author?"

"Who?"

"Here you go," the stall owner announced as he passed over two plates of garlic shrimp to Akira.

"If you see them, tell them I said hi!" he said as they began to walk away, Haru chewing on one of the shrimp as they went.

"Mm... These are actually very nice," Haru said, before turning around to face Akira. "You should try one as well."

"I would, but I've got my hands full," he said, nodding to the plates he was holding in both hands. Haru went to grab a plate, but stopped and began to smirk.

_Uh oh_, Akira thought. "Haru, don't-"

His protests were cut short as Haru swiftly grabbed a shrimp off of the plate and shoved it into his mouth for him to chew on mid sentence, grabbing the plates on her way back to let him savour the taste.

"So..." Haru asked as he chewed on the shrimp. "What do you think?"

Akira finished the shrimp in his mouth and swallowed it, before pulling his face into a grimace. "Garlic... Nah... I'll eat it but nah..."

"Oh..."

Akira took a plate in one hand and her free hand in another, guiding them towards a bench so they could sit down to eat and look out at the bright sky.

"We would never be able to get a view like this in Inaba," Akira whispered in awe as he ate the shrimp on his plate.

"What was Inaba like?" Haru asked as she worked her way through her shrimp.

"It's quiet now. There used to be some media attention back when Rise worked at her family's tofu shop, but aside from that, it was mostly just a quiet town. Not like Tokyo at all," he admitted sadly.

"There were some murders there a few years ago, weren't there?"

"Yeah." Akira looked down at the mostly empty plate in front of him. "They arrested the killer."

"Good."

A brief silence reigned as they finished off the last of their shrimp, before Akira took their plates and placed them in a bin near them.

"Have you been home since you came to Tokyo?" Haru asked as he sat back down.

"Nope."

"How come?"

"Haven't had chance to."

"Oh." Silence filled the air for a while, before Akira stood up once more, and held his hand out to Haru.

"Dip him in the river he who loves water."

"Hm?"

"Have you ever been in the sea before?" he asked. Haru shook her head, and Akira raised an eyebrow. "Well, now's your chance."

"Oh, okay." Haru took Akira's hand and followed him as he walked over towards the sea, which was lazily lapping back and forth, back and forth, as they approached it. She briefly hesitated when he walked into the sea itself, reaching far enough in for the water to lap at his knees, but waded in after him, shivering at the cold water.

"This is strange," she mumbled, not used to the sensation of the water lapping at her legs. Akira offered no response, merely stepping back to allow her to see the sky in front of them. "It's so beautiful..."

Haru was so mesmerized by the setting sun that she didn't hear the swish of water behind her until after the water had hit her back, causing her to let out a shriek and turn around to face a smirking Akira. "What was that?"

"I splashed you."

"That water was cold!"

"Well, yeah. It's the sea." Akira scooped more water up and flung it at her, causing her to shield her face with her arm.

"Stop it!"

Akira's smirk grew wider. "Or what?" You'll splash me back?" he said as he splashed her again.

"I will!" Haru swung her arm through the water and threw some of it at Akira, causing him to let out a yelp as the water hit him.

"That's cold."

"Well, yeah," Haru parroted back. "It's the sea!"

Akira laughed, and splashed more water at Haru again.

"Let's play!"

...

"No, wait! Please wait!"

His pleas were to no avail, as the two waiters continued to drag him along outside of the doors, to the front of the ship, glowing yellow eyes fixated on the crowd of people gathering, until they arrived in front of the crowd, the waiters hoisting him up by his arms to the jeers of the crowd.

"Kobayakawa. The principal of Shujin Academy."

His head snapped up at the mention of his name, and he recoiled in horror at the person in front of him.

"You had two simple tasks. All you had to do was ensure that Okumura and Kurusu were safe and secure and to find the Phantom Thief that was in your school and deal with them."

"Wait! Please!" Kobayakawa begged. "Give me more time, I have the student council-"

"Do you take me for a fool, principal?" The man in front of him asked, his white mask reflecting the principal's sweat soaked face. "We control this city. We know everything. Did you really think your attempts at contacting the police would escape our notice? Did you really think you could sell us out? First you allow the children to leave the country, then you attempt to betray us.

Kobayakawa's eyes widened even more in horror, his mouth flapping uselessly in the wind. He looked around frantically, but all of those present were looking at the masked man, with the exception of two men, both clad in black, who were watching him instead.

"You know the price you must pay." The white masked man held his hand out, a gun materializing in said hand, before he released the safety trigger and aimed the gun at the principal's head, firing a single shot that made the prinicipal slump to the floor. "Let this be a warning to everyone else. Whoever betrays us next shall suffer immensely. We cannot allow our freedom and security, our future and happiness, to be destroyed!

Amidst the resounding cheers and chants of the crowd present, the two men who had been watching slipped away back into the ship, splitting off down two different paths as they went.

...

"If I had known you were planning to throw water at me, I'd have brought towels..."

"Spur of the moment idea...?" Akira offered, only for Haru to shake her head and smile.

"It was fun. I did not think you would pull me into the water like that."

"You pushed me down first."

"That is true," Haru giggled, before her smile faded away. "So once we get back, will you be visiting Inaba?"

"Nope."

"You must miss your home."

"I do."

"Then why-"

"Shido told me I couldn't."

"He said that?" Haru looked at him in confusion. "Akira, you're his protégé, not his servant."

"Well, yes, but also no..." Akira sighed. "It's complicated."

"Oh."

"Yeah..."

Haru fiddled with her hat for a moment as she tried to think. "How is it compli-"

"It just is."

Haru frowned. "Akira..."

"Shido's blackmailing me and if I don't do as he says he'll send me to juvenile hall."

The surprising quickness and bluntness behind his answer silenced her.

"Sorry..."

Haru didn't answer, just shook her head.

"Haru-"

"It's okay, I shouldn't have been prying like that." Haru turned to look at him. "Is there any way I could help you?"

"I don't know, to be honest. Maybe you can convince Kunikazu to-"

"Palace detected."

Akira and Haru looked at each other in confusion for a moment. "Did you say that?"

"No. Did you?"

"I didn't say that." Both frowned, but Akira eventually carried on. "Maybe you can convince Kunikazu to call off the engagement?"

Haru shook her head. "Father would be very unhappy with me if I were to do that. He told me this was my purpose in life."

"What." Akira shook his head. "That's messed up."

Haru looked down uncertainly. "I know."

Both remained quiet for a moment, before Haru looked up at the clock. "I'm going to head to my room. Thank you for today, Akira, I have enjoyed your company."

"If you enjoyed my company, you should meet its CEO."

Haru raised an eyebrow at him. "Really?"

"What?" Then Akira's mind clicked and his eyebrows flew up comically. "That came out- that-"

"I know that was a joke," Haru said, stifling a laugh at his frantic flailing as he tried to backtrack. "Good night, Akira."

"Good night, Haru," he said as he let out a relieved sigh. As her footsteps faded away, he pulled out his phone from his jacket pocket to shoot an update to Shido, only to find an unfamiliar app on the screen.

"Name, location, appearance...?" He read out as he looked at the three sections on the glowing screen, noticing one of them had been filled in already.

"Kunikazu Okumura?"

...

_Author's note: And the principal is the first named character I've ever killed off on screen, I think. Probably._

_Shout to the r/fanfiction Discord for helping me refine some of the dialogue and scenes in the chapter, much appreciated._

_Half way there, I believe. Might change depending on how much detail we need, but this should be the halfway point for the fic. Hopefully you've all enjoyed it so far. I appreciate the support!_


	7. Chapter 7: Rebellious Empress

"Access granted."

"Stop right there!"

Kunikazu turned around to face the people calling him. "So the Phantom Thieves have come for me."

Sae conjured up an anti-materiel rifle and aimed it at the older man. "We need information from you. Stay right there and answer-"

"-and you'll let me go? You're a Phantom Thief. I know of what you people do. I'll take my chances." Kunikazu pulled a robot in front of him to distract Sae and ducked under her warning shot, launching himself through the door and running away as it closed behind him.

Sae ran over to the door, stopping as the monitor above it began to scan her. "Access denied."

"Oracle, override this door," Sae commanded.

Inside of the Necronomicon, Futaba quickly pulled up a screen and started typing away on it, pouting as a red alarm symbol immediately flagged up on it. "No fair, it's a biometric lock!" She whined.

"So you can't override it?"

"Nope. Not unless you've got a lot of skin flakes from him and I mean a lot, this thing scans everything. Or a relative, this thing is not that precise."

"A relative would be easier. Do some research online, see what you can find-"

"Don't need to," Futaba chirped. "He has a daughter who's getting married. It's all over the internet! I think there were a couple of posts on the Phansite asking us to change her fiancé's heart so he wouldn't marry her."

"Seriously?"

"Yep!"

Sae sighed. "Then what do you know?" She asked as she turned around and began to walk away from the door.

"Her name's Haru Okumura, she's 18 years old, she studies at Shujin Academy and she recently bought eight sacks of fertilizer online at-"

"Too much information, Oracle." Sae cut her off. "Haru Okumura? I've met her before, I believe Queen is friends with her. We'll ask her to get in contact with Haru and see if she can help us with her father."

"Aww, but I wanted to try to fool the lock! Do you know how many places I can get to that have biometric locks?!"

"If she can't or won't help us, you and Mona can work on gathering whatever it is you need to get us through that door."

"Yay!"

...

"Kurusu-san, the interview will start soon."

Akira glanced into the mirror one last time to make sure his hair was fixed up and ready before putting on the glasses and standing up.

"Right this way please," the runner called. Akira nodded, and began to follow him towards the set for the show.

"Shido-sama has explained to you what the plan for today's show is, yes?" The runner asked as they weaved through narrow corridors towards where the others were waiting.

"No...?"

"He and Okumura-sama will be going on first to discuss their new political party, then it'll be you and Okumura-san to discuss your engagement, and then the special guest will go on."

"Special guest?" Akira asked.

"I'm not allowed to talk about them," the runner answered sheepishly.

"Oh."

"But Shido-sama said that they might be someone you know." The two stopped outside the room to the set. "Here we are."

"Thank you."

The runner nodded, and walked away at the call of another crew member as Akira looked around for any sign of the others.

"...there he is. Just wait with him, the others should be along shortly," another runner explained as they led someone else over.

"Haru," Akira greeted the fluffy brunette. "You okay?"

"Yes, but I'm a little nervous," she admitted as she walked over to stand next to him.

"I am too. Never been on a talk show before."

Haru quietly hummed to herself. "There's supposed to be a special guest as well."

"Yeah, I got told that it might be someone I know."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"That's reassuring. You'll have someone else you know there." Haru paused for a moment, before reaching over and adjusting the glasses that were balancing precariously on Akira's nose. "I'm not sure why Shido-san insisted you wear these. They make you look different."

"Apparently, it makes me look more professional and modest."

"Very well, but I still feel like you shouldn't wear them."

"Why's that?"

"You look more handsome without them."

Akira blinked for a moment, before blushing. "I-um, Thanks?"

Haru smiled upon noticing the reaction. "You've gone all red, Akira. Is something wrong?"

It only made his blush worse. "No, no-"

It was at this moment that a third runner came around the corner with Shido and the elder Okumura in tow. "There's everyone else," the runner said, pointing at them.

Haru's expression became more somber as she saw her father.

"So, you two managed to get here on time. The runners must actually be doing their job, then," Shido said as he walked over to them, Kunikazu walking close behind them.

"Hmph." Kunikazu looked over Haru. "That outfit will do fine. Just don't embarrass me."

"I won't, father."

"I take it you have been going over the script I prepared?" Shido asked. Akira nodded, causing Shido's frown to deepen. "Good. Just stick to that and let me and Kunikazu do most of the talking while we're on the stage."

"Script?" Haru whispered as Kunikazu and Shido started to talk amongst themselves.

"Talking about what Shido's taught me, how I'm finding Tokyo. Making sure it supports the story Shido's telling them," Akira explained quietly.

"Oh."

The sounds of the show's theme song began to play as another runner walked over to them. "Shido-sama, Okumura-sama, it's time."

The two nodded. "Don't mess this up for us," Shido hissed as the two walked over towards the stage entrance, leaving Akira and Haru to wait.

"Any ideas what sort of questions they'll ask us?" Akira asked as the crowd cheered.

"They might ask you about how I've been doing. They won't ask me anything."

"Why? You're a part of this too."

Silence reigned as Akira faintly heard Shido answering some questions, before Haru shook her head. "I am not supposed to answer questions. Father told me I need to sit there and look good for you and him."

"What? No. Haru, you're allowed to answer, this is as much about you as it is about me."

Haru simply shook her head again, and Akira understood.

"That's not fair."

Haru gave no response.

"Then why-"

"Kurusu-san, Okumura-san, you two are up next," a runner called from near the stage. The two nodded and glanced at each other.

"Eyes bright-"

"-chins up-"

"-smiles on-"

"-and do try to look like you want to be here, Akira." Both of them snickered as they walked towards the stage, repeating the advice given to them by Shido before they had arrived at the TV station.

"-by leading Japan."

"A very interesting take there, Shido-san. But now, let's welcome on our second set of guests! They recently stole the hearts of Japan with their engagement, and are set to have the wedding of the decade in the spring! Ladies and gentlemen, it's Akira Kurusu and Haru Okumura!"

The audience began to applaud as Akira and Haru walked onto the stage, meekly waving as they walked together, towards where the other guests and the show's presenter were sat. Shido glancing over at them as they bowed and sat down themselves.

"So, Kurusu-san," the presenter began. "We know you moved to Tokyo a few months ago from a small town. How are you finding the big city?"

Akira glanced over to Shido, who subtlely nodded back at him. "It is a very wonderful place. It's so big, and colourful as well."

"It is, isn't it! Even the audience agrees!" The presenter gestured to the audience, who were nodding and murmuring in agreement. "And now you're marrying a beautiful woman! Isn't that every man's dream?"

_No. At least not when the alternative is going to juvenile hall,_ Akira thought, but he remained silent.

"But I have to ask, what are your thoughts on the recent events involving your fiancé's company?"

"Company?" Akira looked over at the presenter. "Okumura Foods?"

"Yes, that's right. Employees have been seen protesting outside of Okumura Foods Headquarters-"

"Location detected."

Shido's eyes narrowed for a brief moment, but he reached into his pocket and pulled out a phone. "My apologies, I must have forgotten to turn my phone off," he said with a chuckle, frowning as he checked it, before putting it away and smiling again.

"Anyway... So, what are your thoughts in regards to the protests?"

This was something Shido had covered in the script he'd given him, so he replied with the rehearsed reply. "I can understand where they are coming from, and I hope they will be able to negotiate with management soon."

Kunikazu scowled, but Shido nodded briefly.

"That is a very thoughtful way of putting it! But before we go on a commercial break, I have one last thing to ask you." The presenter leaned over slightly and spoke in a stage whisper. "What do you think of the Phantom Thieves?"

Haru jumped slightly, but Akira spoke as sincerely as he could, as if he hadn't been fed lines about this subject by Shido. "I haven't been paying attention to the Phantom Thieves. I'm sure they'll go out of fashion soon."

"Interesting. You're aware that your name has appeared on the website dedicated to people who need their hearts stealing by the Phantom Thieves, yes?"

Internally, he groaned, but he spoke with the same sincerity and added in a tad bit of shyness to his next words. "But my heart has already been stolen by my wonderful fiancé."

The audience let out a collective "awwww" as the presenter turned back around to face them. "What a heartfelt thing to say! And with that, we will have our special guest on after the commercial break!" The shortened jingle of the show's theme played as the audience clapped and the cameras panned away, allowing Akira and Haru to walk off of the set together, Shido following after them.

"Maybe you two are good for something other than being teenagers after all," he muttered behind them as they walked backstage, before raising his voice to address them. "You won't be needed after the break. Transportation has been arranged and we will see you once we're finished here."

"What about the-"

"Excuse me, Shido?"

The three of them turned around to see who had spoken, and were greeted by the sight of a young woman walking forward.

"I wanted to speak with you, before the interview."

Shido nodded and threw a glance to Akira and Haru over his shoulder to dismiss them as he quickly walked towards the woman, steering her away from them and walking back down another corridor with her.

"I think she's the special guest," Akira observed."

Haru looked to Akira in surprise. "How do you know?"

"I grew up watching the Neo Feathermen. She sounds like Pink Argus."

"Pink Argus?"

"From Featherman Victory."

"I do not know who that is," Haru admitted. Akira frowned and nodded, and the two started to walk down another corridor away from the stage.

"You haven't watched Neo Featherman?"

"No. Father deemed such shows unladylike to watch."

Akira frowned and looked down. "Unladylike...?"

Haru quickly decided to change the subject. "Your heart has been stolen by your wonderful fiancé, Akira?"

Akira groaned and scratched his head. "Shido's script, not my words. I was just as surprised as you were when he mentioned the Phantom Thieves, especially when he mentioned that my name was on the Phansite. I thought they only went after bad people?"

"They do." Haru's gaze dropped. "I don't know who could think you were a bad person," she mumbled.

"I can."

Haru looked up at him in surprise.

"But I don't want to talk about it."

"I see."

Both fell into silence until they came up to their dressing rooms. "So what now?"

Haru remained silent, absent-mindedly staring down the hallway as she thought.

"Haru?"

Still no answer. Akira tapped her on the shoulder, causing her to jump slightly. "You alright?" he asked.

"Yes. What are you going to do now?"

"I-um..." Akira was caught off guard by how quickly Haru had answered. "I guess I'll be going home. What about you?"

"I'm not sure." Before Akira could ask any further, Haru's phone began to ring. "Hello?"

Akira looked down at his phone, noticed the red eye icon was flashing again.

"Yes, we've just finished with the TV interview."

With an annoyed mutter, he swiped the icon away. That could be dealt with later.

"I'm free now. I'll head over there." Haru ended the call as Akira looked up from his phone. "Mako-chan wants to meet me."

"Want any company?"

Haru shook her head and smiled. "I'll be fine. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Stay safe."

"I will." A hint of sadness flickered in Haru's eyes as she tried to reach out to his hand, before deciding against it. "Please, be careful, Akira," she said before she turned away from him and walked into her dressing room.

Akira watched her go, before walking into his own dressing room with a frown on his face. Setting aside the glasses Shido had given him, he sat down at the dressing table in front of him and laid his face on the tabletop with a solid thud, letting out a small groan as he did.

"I never want to learn a script again."

...

The bell above the door rang, drawing Makoto's attention to the person entering the café.

"You work here, Mako-chan?" Haru asked as she stepped through the entrance of Leblanc.

"Sometimes. Boss wanted me to help out here, and it's a nice break from my studies. So I've been learning how to make coffee and curry. Would you like to try some?" Haru nodded, and took a seat in the booth near to the door, missing the curious glance Sojiro threw Makoto's way.

"She's a quick learner," Was all Sojiro had to say in response. Makoto finished making the coffee and brought it over to where Haru was sitting, taking a seat opposite her as she took a sip.

"It's good," Haru said. Makoto frowned, but didn't inquire further. "What did you want to talk about?"

"We need your help."

"Oh?" Haru set her coffee cup down. "What with?"

"Your father."

A chill went through Haru. "My father? Is he alright?" she asked, fear accompanying her words and causing Makoto's frown to disappear, alarm taking its place.

"I mean-your father is okay, but we want to help him with something!"

Haru frowned. _You are a bad liar, Mako-chan_, she thought. "Okay... What is it?" she asked instead.

"I- I mean, we, we think someone's causing him some trouble and we're worried it'll bother you, so we want your help to help him!" Makoto explained, a nervous giggle escaping her as she talked. When Haru's frown deepened, she sighed and shook her head. "My sis can explain it better. Am I okay to go?" Makoto asked, turning to look at Sojiro.

"Fine." Sojiro turned to look at the TV, not acknowledging Makoto as she took off her LeBlanc apron and hung it up. Haru quickly drained the rest of her coffee as she waited for Makoto. _Too cold__,_ she thought sadly as she brought the cup over to the counter.

"Thanks." Sojiro took the cup without looking and walked over to the sink to clean it us as Haru and Makoto walked out of the café.

"Sae's parked nearby, so it won't be too far to walk," Makoto explained, more to break the silence than anything. She quickly gave up when Haru didn't answer.

_Why would Sae be here? Mako-chan said she had a case today,_ Haru thought. The two walked in silence, Makoto occasionally glancing at Haru as she tried to think of ways to broach the subject.

She decided to try a different track. "Did Yusuke say anything to you while they were painting you?"

"Yes. They mentioned you were worried about me."

The two reached the car. If Makoto's behaviour so far hadn't concerned Haru, her apprehension upon seeing her sister's car most certainly did.

"Is everything alright, Mako-chan?" she asked, the frown from earlier replaced by a concerned expression.

"Yes. We shouldn't keep Sae waiting," Makoto said, walking around to the side of the car and opening the door. Haru nodded and climbed in, moving over to the other side of the car to let Makoto sit down.

"Did you ask?" Sae asked as Makoto closed the door.

"Yes, well..."

"She said my father is in danger." Haru glanced at the mirror to see Sae looking at her.

"You don't mind if we go for a drive, do you? Goro needs to pick up some things for his apartment."

The way Sae spoke set a small alarm bell off ringing in the back of her mind, but she chose to ignore it. "No, not at all."

"Good." The car doors locked and the engine started, and Sae turned her attention to driving down the road.

"Are we sure it's safe to tell her?" Akechi asked from the front of the car, looking next to him at Sae.

"I don't see why not. She doesn't need to do much, get us past that door and then she can leave and forget it happened."

"You know it's more complicated than that."

"Whatever it takes, Goro." Sae put the brakes on while waiting for the lights ahead to turn green, allowing her to turn her attention back to Haru. "What do you know about the Phantom Thieves?" she asked.

"The Phantom Thieves? They're made Kamoshida confess, and a few others too."

The lights ahead turned green. Sae released the brakes and started driving again, now wondering how best to word what she needed to say next.

She didn't need to.

"You are the Phantom Thieves, aren't you?"

It wasn't a question, rather a statement. One that drew surprised looks from the other occupants of the car.

"Yes. How did you figure it out?" Goro asked.

"There were a few rumours that one of the Phantom Thieves went to Shujin, and Mako-chan kept turning up at school with looking exhausted with fresh bruises all of the time." Haru looked pointedly at Makoto, who winced in response. "She never told me where they came from."

"I didn't want you worrying, you had enough with your wedding..."

"In any case, it makes what we wanted to speak to you about easier." Haru looked back at Sae, who flicked on the indicator as she turned down a road. "Do you remember Medjed?"

"Yes. You defeated them in the summer."

"That was less us and more Oracle. But when Oracle looked into the people who'd posed as Medjed, they found an electronic paper trail showing money transactions from an unknown party."

The alarm bell was joined by several others, ringing louder and louder by the second.

"The trail led back to your father's accounts."

"You think my father paid Medjed to try and force you to reveal yourselves?"

"That is what we believe, yes." Akechi turned to look at Haru. "But we won't know for certain unless we get the truth from him. We have methods of achieving that, but we need your help."

Haru's expression darkened, and she glared at the man in front of her. "I won't let you hurt my father."

Akechi quickly turned back around to face the front. "I promise you, Haru, no harm will come to your father."

If Haru had been sat in the front, she might have seen the crossed fingers behind Akechi's back. "Good. Then what do you need me for?"

Makoto turned back from the car window she had been looking out of. "We need to access a locked area, but the only way through is with the DNA of your father or you. We would like you to accompany us to unlock it."

"That's it?"

"Yes. That's it."

"Can I ask something?" Sae frowned, but nodded. "Can you really change people's hearts, like the calling card said?"

"Yes, we can."

"Then I would like you to help me in return. I need you to change someone's heart."

"That depends on who it is.

Haru took a deep breath and steeled herself. "Masayoshi Shido."

The temperature of the car dropped several degrees as Sae parked the car next to the pavement, giving the group time to digest what had just been asked of them.

Akechi recovered first. "Why?"

"He's blackmailing Akira into marrying me. If he doesn't, Shido will send him to prison. It's not fair on him to have to do this, but if Shido gets his heart changed, he'll confess the truth and Akira should be free to leave."

"He's blackmailing him into marrying you." Makoto's voice was laced with disbelief.

"That makes sense, considering this is Shido she's talking about. If it helps him gain more control, he'll use whatever pawns and advantages he can take," Akechi said bitterly.

Sae caught the bitterness and frowned. "I take it you know him well?"

"Knew him well. He's not the same man I used to know. Now he's obsessed with gaining power and keeping it, whatever it takes. Blackmailing someone into a marriage would be an easy choice for him."

Sae's frown deepened at Akechi throwing her words back at him, but she didn't comment.

"I know you're planning to change my father's heart, or you wouldn't need my help to access this locked away area. I'll help you get to my father, but I want you to help Akira get away from what Shido's holding over him. Please."

"You know, Akira isn't the person you think he is," Akechi warned.

"Goro, you of all people do not get to hold that against someone."

"I beg to differ. And why are you considering helping him? He doesn't know who we are, and he most likely is happier living with Shido than when he was-"

"Goro." Sae's voice was ice cold, the glare accompanying it even more so, and it shut down any further comments from the man.

"I'm sure Akira will tell me if it's something I need to know," Haru said. "But that is what I want."

Silence reigned in the car for a moment.

"I say yes, we should agree," Makoto said breaking the silence as Sae started driving again.

"Thank you, Mako-chan."

"Shido is not someone you want to cross, Okumura-san. Are you sure about this?" Akechi asked.

"Yes, I'm sure. I want Akira to be happy."

Akechi frowned, but nodded. "I guess it is your funeral, then. Sae-san?"

"If Oracle and Mona agree to it, then yes."

"Thank you, Niijima-san."

"Call me Sae." The car stopped, and Sae put the break on and turned off the engine.

"You might want to prepare yourself, Haru," Makoto said. "It's a strange place."

_Strange?_ Haru thought. _How strange?_

...

_How very strange, _Haru thought.

They were traveling downwards in a lift. But that was not what struck her as strange.

"Why is she not freaking out about this?" The orange haired one called Oracle complained. "This is totally weird!"

"Perhaps her upbringing made her better at keeping her composure?" Akechi offered, drawing her attention over to him.

The others around her were all clad in odd outfits. Oracle's had green neon lines running along hers, Makoto was clad in leather, which looked quite similar to the clothes the bikers she had seen in some of Akira's shows wore. Sae appeared to be wearing a judge's robe with a peruke resting on her head. Yet it was Akechi and Mona's outfits that baffled her the most.

"Makoto-"

"In here, my codename is Queen," Makoto corrected her.

"My apologies, but Queen, why is the cat walking on two legs?"

"I'm not a cat!" Mona quickly snapped.

"That is what Mona looks like in here."

"Oh." The elevator stopped, and the group started walking through several corridors, Sae and Oracle moving ahead while the others stayed with Haru to continue escorting her towards their destination. "What about Akechi-"

"Crow."

"-Crow, my apologies. But why is he dressed like that?" Haru gestured to the black and blue striped outfit he was clad in, the helmet/mask covering up most of his head and face.

"This is what my rebellious heart looks like."

"Your rebellious heart?"

"It's complicated," Sae said as she walked back over to the group. "Joker, we need you to stand in front of the door for us."

"Joker?"

"You don't have a code name yet, so that will hide who you are."

"I see." Haru walked away from the group and stood in front of the door, flinching slightly as it started to scan her.

"Access granted."

"It worked!" Oracle cheered.

"Good. Mona, can you-"

"What are you doing here!?"

Haru flinched and looked up, the Phantom Thieves instantly moving to form a protective wall in front of her.

"Father!"

"Kunikazu." Sae's eyes narrowed. "You should've taken my offer."

"That's his Shadow?" Makoto asked.

Akechi nodded. "That's his distortion."

"You're associating with such vulgar people as the Thieves? I thought that boy would know better than to let you go around on your own." Kunikazu's anger briefly cooled, a small smirk forming as an idea formed in his head. "Unless you're bringing them to me as a gift? You owe me that much after I let you leave the country, and the white mask is getting impatient."

"White mask?" Haru looked at him in confusion, before shaking her head. "I mean no! They just want to ask you about that Medjed group!"

Kunikazu let out a short bark of a laugh. "They want to ask me something. That's why they brought you along, as opposed to speaking to me in person?" He shook his head and turned away. "Since you don't realise what you've been doing, I'll let you off with a warning."

Kunikazu snapped his fingers, before hitting a button on the elevator and descending. "Take care of the Thieves, and send her back home."

"**Yes, father.**"

Haru spun around to see a person stood behind her, flanked by three worker robots. As she tried could get a word out, the figure moved, conjuring up multiple rainbow coloured spheres and launching them at the Thieves behind her back, knocking them away. Taking advantage, the worker robots quickly moved forward and surrounded Haru, preventing her from running away.

"Who are you?" She asked.

"**It's your first time being out from under your father's thumb, isn't it?**" The figure asked, walking forwards towards Haru. "**You don't even realise where you are, do you?"** When Haru didn't answer, the figure took off the hat balancing on its head. "**Surely you must recognise me now.**"

And Haru did. It felt like staring into a mirror, only more surreal. "You look just like me."

"**Except I'm not trapped. I'm free.**"

"I am free."

"**That's why you're marrying a stranger.**" Haru fell silent, and the other her continued talking. "**But your father has cast the first stone. He ordered me to murder your friends. I've been waiting for a long time for him to make that mistake, to give you a reason to rebel. A very long time.**" She held her arms out, conjuring a long axe and holding it out in both of her hands. "**I don't want to hear you say that you want freedom, that you want to save your father. I want your actions to tell me that. Place your hands upon our liberation, and let us go to war for our freedom.**"

Haru looked down at the axe, and back up at her other self. "For our freedom?"

"**Yours, and the boy's.**"

Haru placed her hands upon the axe, and as though commanded by an otherworldly power, the two spoke at once.

"I am thou."

"**And thou art I.**"

"For his freedom."

"**And for ours.**"

"**We fight as one.**"

A blue pillar of light erupted from where the two were stood, consuming them both and knocking as the Phantom Thieves began to awaken and stir.

Sae was the first to recover, turning around to see the blue light dissipating to reveal a figure stood before her, hat balancing on her head, axe in one hand, clad in a French musketeer outfit.

"Haru...?" She asked in surprise.

"I'm alright. I'll handle the workers." Haru spun round and launched her axe at one of the robots, knocking it down before putting her hand to her head.

"Descend, Astarte! Mapsio!" Haru commanded, a Persona appearing behind her that summoned several rainbow coloured balls, which were launched at the two remaining robots, knocking them down and causing them to dissolve.

"...why is the Fuhrer boss just Hitler wearing sunglasses?" Futaba mumbled from somewhere to Sae's left. Sae quickly cast a Mediarama as she stumbled to her feet and walked over to Haru, who'd picked her axe up from where the robot had dissolved.

"You have a Persona?"

Haru turned to face Sae, a small smile now on her face.

"I think I would like the codename Noir, if you will allow me to join you in finding my father?"

Sae frowned. "We'll ask the rest of the team first, but Noir is fine with me."

Haru nodded. "Thank you, Sae."

"It's Jury."

"Thank you, Jury."

...

_Author's Note: I know I'm a month late. But I've been busy with my personal life. Went to Comic-Con, saw a Joker cosplayer and two Futabas, and I've had to rewrite two chapters I've already written for Wedding because I decided to change the plot somewhat. Next chapter might take a while too, so if you're worried, hit me up on Twitter or Tumblr and I'll let you know what's going on._

_Also, I really hope someone catches the reference._


	8. Chapter 8: White Mask

"...and so it turned out that she was actually a robot! And that is why you must keep an open mind regarding the stories you hear."

The school bell rang, signifying that classes had ended for the day. Akira started to pack away his schoolwork quickly, ignoring the teacher's ramblings about assignments and tests. They had a test scheduled in two weeks time, which he had definitely been revising for, he totally had not been putting it off in favour of defeating that stupid final boss in Soulbourne.

Stupid lightning strikes and that stupid cape making his attacks longer. Why couldn't his character have that?

Akira darted out of the classroom doorway, ducking between the student council president and another member of the student council and walked up the stairs towards the roof as fast as he could, bursting through the double doors where, to his not surprise, Haru was working on the garden.

Key word being "was", for Haru had jumped up in fright when Akira had crashed through the doors with the grace of a flying seal. "Akira!" she chided as she rested a hand over her chest. "Was that necessary?"

"Probably not. But we've not had chance to go over the plants in a while, so I wanted to help out, preferably before people decide to ask questions about our personal life."

"Ann-san?" she asked.

"Nope."

"Itsuka-san?"

"Yeah. He and his friends are very interested in what we get up to when we're alone." Akira picked up the spare watering can and walked over to where they'd set up another planter, inspecting it closely. "I don't get it. Why can't they bother someone else for a change?" he grumbled as he watered the plants.

Haru offered no answer. Her heart rate having returned to its regular pace, she returned to tending to the plants. The two worked in silence for a while, until Akira spoke again.

"Did you sleep alright?"

Haru blinked, before remembering her excuse to Akira about why she had not returned home until the early hours of the morning. "Yes. Sae-san and Mako-chan made sure I was comfortable."

"Oh." Was that shyness she picked up from him? "Good. I-If you ever need somewhere to, you know, stay and, well, Mako-chan's busy..."

Haru glanced behind her to see Akira had turned away from her, rubbing at his neck in a vain attempt to hide how red he most likely was. Clearly, he was embarassed about what he'd been about to ask.

"**May I?**" she heard her other self ask.

_Pardon__?_

"**I have the perfect idea and the perfect excuse. May I**?"

Oh.

_Go ahead_, she told her other self.

Akira could not believe he had just asked, or tried to ask that. For one, he shouldn't be this awkward about it, they were getting married in less than two months and two-

"Akira."

The boy reluctantly turned around to face Haru, who was looking down at her hands as she washed them. "Is everything alright?"

"Y-yeah, why wouldn't it be?"

"You've gone all red."

Akira interally cursed whichever god decided to mess with his day today. First he tripped up the stairs, then Itsuka's buddies decided to ask questions they shouldn't, and now Haru was-

"Have you overworked yourself?" she asked.

"No, I-why are you holding my hand?"

"Do you trust me?" The question was simple, yet the answer made Haru smile happily from her front row seat of whatever Astarte was doing.

"Of course I trust you."

Haru guided Akira towards the little spot they had cleared next to the doors to the rooftop, where they usually had lunch or talked if the plants didn't require much attention. Sitting down on the floor and straightening her legs out, she gestured to Akira to do the same.

"You look like you could do with some rest."

Akira, who's face had finally stopped burning crimson, looked at her blankly. "I'm fine, Haru."

"You aren't. How much sleep did you get?"

He was not going to tell Haru that he had barely slept because he had been trying to beat that boss again. She'd tell him off and then probably beat it with a wooden club like she did the last time he left her with Soulbourne. "I just-don't worry about it," he said dismissively.

"But I am worried." Her voice took on a pleading tone. "Won't you please take a break?"

Akira mentally threw his hands up in the air in defeat and nodded. Haru smiled and gently wrapped an arm around his shoulder, pulling him closer to her.

Akira was expecting her to pull him to rest on her shoulder, like something out of a cheesy romance flick. Instead he found his head on her lap.

"Are you comfy?"

Akira let out a soft "yeah", and Haru set to work, running her fingers through his hair, straightening out the unkempt curls, running the tips of her fingers along the skin underneath causing goosebumps to erupt across his neck and his face to blush scarlet.

"This is weird..."

Haru glanced down at him, but didn't say anything, instead doubling back to try and straighten out the curls in his hair, fingertips never leaving his skin. Akira took it as a sign to carry on.

"I've never had someone play with my hair before."

"With hair like yours?" Haru asked in surprise.

"No. I wasn't... I, well..." Akira sighed. "I wasn't in one place long enough to get close to anyone like this. Inaba's the longest I've stayed somewhere, and I wasn't really, you know..."

"I know." Fingers circled Akira's jawline, leaving a light trail of tingles wherever they went. "Father didn't want me to talk to anyone without his approval. You are the first boy my age who I've been around outside of a social event."

"I hope I haven't put you off talking to guys."

A light laugh escaped her. "You haven't. But I think I prefer talking to you."

"I'm sure the other guys are heartbroken to hear that."

"What other guys?"

"Well..." Akira tensed up slightly as Haru's hands stilled, before his voice dropped to a whisper. "Norba asked me the other day what you looked like in a swimsuit."

"And what did you say?"

"That you looked like you. What was I supposed to say?" Akira's face reddened slightly.

Haru allowed herself to smile, hands running through Akira's hair once more. "You seemed to like how I looked in Hawaii."

Akira went even more red as he turned over in her lap to face her. "I was that obvious?"

"You don't have to be embarrassed, Akira," she reassured him, before giggling. "If it's you, I do not mind."

"Haru..."

"Yes?" Her voice took on a teasing tone. "I liked how you looked."

His face now bright enough to serve as a lighthouse, Akira shook his head and sat up. "My guardian would never have let me live it down if he'd heard you say that."

"Shido-san?"

"No, the one who I lived with in Inaba."

"Oh." A thought occured to Haru. "Do you think I could meet them?"

"I think so. He'll want to meet you for sure."

"I hope you've been telling him good things about me."

Akira chuckled. "Like you've done anything wrong."

"Aside from tricking you into watching that horror show."

"In my defence, I thought it was one of them coming of age TV shows and I convinced you to let me watch it."

"And you complained for a month afterwards about how kids their age shouldn't be fighting demons with that many teeth."

Both of them laughed for a moment, Akira's blush fading slightly as the two lapsed into silence.

"We need to watch the next season of it."

"Are you going to complain about it again?"

"Probably."

Now it was Haru's turn to shake her head. "You're unbelievable."

"Now that we can agree on." Akira laughed quietly to himself before speaking again. "But even so, I'm glad to have met you."

"Oh?" Haru's gaze turned curious. "What's made you say that?"

"Nothing." Akira's blush returned. "I just-"

Akira was cut off by the doors to the roof opening and someone walking through.

"Haru?" the person called.

"I'm over here." Haru quickly took control back from Astarte and stood up from where they had sat together and walked over to them, who Akira recognised.

"Sis said we only have a little bit of time, so we need to go now," Makoto explained, sparing a glance at Akira, who was sat facing away from them. "Did I interrupt something?"

"No, Mako-chan." Perhaps Haru put a little too much empathasis on that, as Makoto looked at her with concern before nodding.

"Then we need to go. The car's outside." Makoto turned around and began walking through the doors back off the rooftop, leaving Haru and Akira alone.

"Akira-"

"It's fine." Standing back up, he turned around and flashed a quick smile at her. "We can talk about what I..." His voice trailed off as he dropped his gaze and started tapping his foot awkwardly. "Can we talk about it later?"

"Of course. Be careful, Akira."

"It's me, what's the worst that could happen?" Akira chuckled before turning away. "Be careful."

"I will."

And with that, Haru left the rooftop, leaving Akira alone. With perfect timing on its part, Akira's phone began to ring, drawing his attention to it. Looking at the caller ID, he allowed himself a small smile before answering.

"Old man."

"How many times have I told you not to call me 'old man'? I'm not that much older than you."

Akira chuckled. "Because you react like that when I do. What else am I supposed to call you? Father?"

"Senpai."

"Nah, you're not a student."

A sigh enamanted from the phone. "Are you alone?"

"Yeah."

"Good, because we need to talk."

Great. He wasn't in Inaba anymore and he was still getting lectured. Akira sighed. "Why? I've kept up the exercise routine and I've done everything that Shido guy's told me to-"

"Its about Shido."

"Oh?" Akira's smile grew hopeful. "Has Satonaka finally noticed she arrested the wrong person?"

"For one, she's right here and two, she was fully aware but-"

"-her hands were tied regarding Shido and everyone's doing the best they can with what they have, I know." The fact that one of his guardian's friends had been the one to arrest him amused Akira quite a bit. "That must be an amazing example for the rest of her classmates to follow."

"Akira!"

"What?" And then Akira realised what he said, and his smile vanished. "Sorry..."

Murmuring erupted down the phone, before they spoke again, a joking tone accompanying his words. "She says she'll have you arrested for disrespecting the law if you carry on."

"She's going to arrest me again?"

"Akira."

"What? It means I get to go home!" But I'm getting distracted, what about Shido?" Akira asked.

"Mitsuru's been hearing some bad things from Tokyo recently. Have you seen or found anything weird while you've been living with him?"

"Anything weird?" Akira unzipped his bag and started digging through it. The voice had told him to keep it with him, but they probably didn't mean at all times. "Yeah, I did. He had this old gun."

"An old gun? What does it look like?"

The feeling of unease filled Akira again as he held the weapon in his hand, turning it over as he looked. "It's chipped, but it looks like it's made of silver. There's a word, or maybe an acronym, written on it."

"A word?"

"SEES, whatever that is."

A sharp intake of breath came down the line, making Akira wince. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah. S E E S."

The line went silent for a moment, no doubt the person on the other end was talking to Chie about the gun. Akira stowed it back in his bag as he waited for them to talk to him.

"Akira, I need you to go back to Shido's house." The voice had taken on a serious tone. "Find any evidence you can and bring it to someone that Mitsuru knows and trusts."

"Who?"

"Sae Niijima. She'll know the best way to handle Shido, but please be careful."

"It's me, Sanada, what could-"

"Kurusu."

He'd been last named. That meant he was worried.

"I'll be careful, old man."

"What have I said about-"

Akira hung up and sighed, before zipping his bag back up and standing up to walk through the doors of the rooftop.

Even in Tokyo, he couldn't get out of being roped into investigations, it seemed.

...

"...the group, who have taken to calling them themselves "Ironfire", have been seen in Shibuya and while their recent actions have been minor, police are encouraging citizens to avoid interacting with them wherever possible."

_Ironfire_, Shido thought to himself. _The current generation truly are running out of ideas._

As the TV continued to blare away behind him, now discussing the continuing instances of criminal damage against the headquarters of Okumura Foods, Shido noticed that he'd added the name of the group to the script he was preparing, and mentally cursed himself as he backspaced and removed it, writing down the actual words he was supposed to say.

Scripts, Shido had learned early on, were essential. As the old saying went, those who fail to prepare prepared to fail. Even a charismatic man such as himself benefited from knowing what he should say, and how he should say it. It was what made the difference between him and the idiots who tried to get into politics.

Speaking of which...

Shido's phone began to vibrate next to him, having turned the sound off to ensure he wasn't disturbed while working. He'd told people not to contact him unless it was an emergency. Sighing, he picked up the phone and answered.

"Masayoshi Shido."

"A situation has developed."

Shido's eyebrow rose a notch. "What kind of situation?"

"I have received a calling card."

"From the Phantom Thieves?" The eyebrow went back down and a thin smile began to form on his face, and he allowed just a hint of fake concern to slip into his voice. "Is there any way to trace it to its point of origin?"

"No. I've already ran it through the tests you instructed me to. There's nothing on it."

**"I was right."**

Shido mentally acknowledged the voice before returning to the call. "And what of your daughter? Did she see anything?"

"She was out of the house when I found it. With Kurusu-kun, according to her.

Shido's smile grew into a shark grin. He'd found his prey at last. "Contact me if you feel any different."

"I will. And I apologise for letting them get to me."

"Do not apologise. You couldn't have seen it coming." With a click, Shido ended the call. Saving the work he had done on the script so far, he stood up from the computer and strode over to the TV opposite him, picking up the TV remote and switching it off.

"Akira said Haru had left school early." Shido shook his head. "To think that his own daughter was part of the group that are planning to steal his heart..."

**"The Thieves are proceeding as I expected."**

"You say that as though you don't have twenty other plans in place."

**"I will not allow a silver of unpredictability to ruin what the people want. Not again."**

"Kunikazu is now a liabilty. And his daughter is most likely a Phantom Thief. If he confesses, we will have to escalate the timetable."

**"Order him to set up a press conference for two days time."**

Shido raised an eyebrow at that. "Setting an example to the other Thieves?"

**"To everyone who doesn't want society to reform."**

Shido's smile vanished as he heard the creak of the stairs, followed by footsteps telling him Akira was back. He quickly strode over to the wall next to his computer and drew the curtains covering it closer together, making sure the photos behind them were hidden from view, before grabbing his phone and walking out of his office as Akira reached the top of the stairs.

"There's a group of deliquents in Shibuya called Ironfire," he began without so much as waiting for Akira to greet him. "Stay away from them, getting associated with riffraff like that would not be kind for your reputation."

Akira nodded and stepped aside, allowing Shido to walk down the stairs to the entrance of the house, his security guards following after him. Once he heard the car door shut and the engine start, he started sneaking over to the office Shido had just walked out of.

All he had to do was carefully search the office to see if Shido had anything else besides the gun. Akira was certain the office would be a dead end, Shido didn't seem like the type of person to plot from a small room in a house he shared with a security detail and a kid. A private penthouse would be more like him.

That being said, a small pang of guilt settled in his stomach as he slowly pushed the door to the office open. Shido clearly had some level of trust in him if he was leaving him alone without any guards, so what he was doing didn't feel fair on him. Maybe he should ask him about the gun?

Actually, no. Bad idea. He could imagine that conversation now. _"__Hey Shido, I found this old gun in your room when I was chasing a cat and it's scaring my old guardian. Are you secretly planning to destroy the world?__"_

_"Why were you in my room?"_

Yeah. Definitely a bad idea. Which only left searching his office, regardless of how guilty it made him feel. Akira took a quick look around the room, trying to spot anything weird and-

Aha!

Akira quickly stalked over to the safe by the TV. Shido was bound to have left something incriminating in there. He grabbed the handle and pulled and to his surprise, the safe door swung open...

...to reveal a pile of Pinguen bars hidden inside. _So that's where Shido's been hiding them, _Akira thought, quickly pinching one out to look at the joke written on the back.

"What is black and white and red all over?" he read aloud. "A burnt penguin." He snickered and put the chocolate bar back in, closing the safe door after it.

Turning around, Akira caught sight of the curtains, drawn together a little too tightly. How suspicious. Akira walked over to them, noticing the lack of a window behind it.

Why would you need a curtain if you didn't have a window? Shido had to be hiding something there.

He pulled the curtains wide open.

And his blood ran cold when he saw what was behind it.

On the wall in front of him were several photos of people he'd heard mentioned by the news and Shido, each marked with their own name. Suguru Kamoshida, Ichiryusai Madarame, Jurya Kaneshiro, Futaba Isshiki, and finally, Kunikazu Okumura. All except Kunikazu had crosses over their photos.

The news claimed that Kamoshida, Kaneshiro and Madarame had all confessed to committing terrible crimes, but he'd never heard of this Isshiki person. Could he have missed her on the news?

Beneath were a collection of photos of people, with the words "possible Phantom Thieves" written above them. A large number of photos were crossed out, which he guessed meant that they couldn't be Phantom Thieves. A few remained, with names scrawled under them.

Yusuke Kitaguwa, who'd supposedly been Madarame's ex-pupil. Shido had commissioned them to do a painting of Haru a few months back.

Mishima Yuuki. The rumour mill at school suggested that he was the one behind the Phansite, but that same rumour mill claimed that he was marrying Haru for her money, so he doubted it.

Futaba Isshiki, or Futaba Sakura if the line through her other name meant anything. He didn't know anything about her, but her photo had a tick on it.

Makoto Niijima. She was the student council president, and the same rumour mill had said that she was a Phantom Thief. If she was, he seriously needed to ask her how she did it between being top of the third year class, training the Bernstein girl to take her place as student council president after she graduated, spending time with Haru and studying. Her's had a question mark above it.

Sae Niijima, the person Akihiko mentioned. Her photo had a tick on it.

Akira felt a sense of dread chase out the guilt in his stomach as he looked at the final photo, the name scrawled underneath it.

Haru Okumura. Her photo had a tick next to it.

_Oh, shit._

Akira quickly pulled his phone out and took a bunch of pictures of the photos before frantically dialing Haru's number.

"Hello, I am unable to answer at the moment-"

"Why now of all times, Haru?" he groaned as he cut the automated voicemail short and started pacing the office nervously.

This was bad. Really, really bad. If those photos meant what he feared it did, then it meant Shido suspected that Haru was a Phantom Thief, as well as this Futaba girl and Mitsuru's friend. A quick glance at the board told him this wasn't some sick joke. He didn't know what Shido wanted with the Phantom Thieves, but no one dedicated a wall to following a group and hid it behind a curtain without having a reason to hide it, and knowing the kind of man Shido was...

Akira shuddered as he remembered when Shido had found that mouse. He had been thankful Haru hadn't been around to see how the poor thing had ended up. He redialed the number, praying Haru would pick up.

Nothing. Straight to voicemail. Damn it, Haru.

Akira looked back at the board again, this time spotting some words written beneath each of the crossed out photos.

Futaba Sakura. Futaba's room. Tomb.

Jurya Kaneshiro. Shibuya. Bank.

There were three words under each photo, including Kunikazu's.

Kunikazu Okumura. Okumura Foods Headquarters. Spaceport.

Wait.

Akira flicked over to the glowing red app on his phone and opened it. It had two sections filled now.

Kunikazu Okumura. Okumura Foods Headquarters.

What did this app even do?

"**Yes...**"

Akira whipped his head around in panic. "Who's there?"

"**That is the way. Use the navigator.**"

_Navigator?_

Akira looked down at his phone again. Looked at the wall of photos before him.

_This is the way..._

"Spaceport." He spoke aloud.

"Keywords confirmed. Beginning navigation."

The world around him began to distort and twist.

...

"Satan, come forth! Black Viper!"

The Persona responded to Sae's command, launching free of her mask to fire a torrent of energy at the Shadow, dissolving it to nothing in an instant before returning to mask form once more. Sae sheathed her weapon, letting it dissipate back into nothingness on her back as she turned around in time to see a trio of shadows get knocked skywards by Haru's grenade launcher, Makoto and Johanna ramping off of each of the flying shadows before launching a Vajira Blast at them in tandem with Goro's Bufudyne and Morgana's Garudyne, dissolving the shadows into dust once more.

"Good work, everyone!" Futaba called from above in the Necromicon. "Mona, you said the Treasure's ahead, right?"

"Of course! I can smell treasure from a mile away!"

Futaba snickered. "Is that because all of the treasures made of catnip?"

"Hey! Was that a cat joke?!"

"Now, now," Akechi stepped between the two in an attempt to end the quarrel. "There's no need to get catty about all of this."

The entire floor fell silent. Morgana and Futaba both stared at Akechi for a few moments before the not-a-cat jumped up and slapped him on the back of the head. "That's not funny!"

"I know."

"Then why even make the pun?"

"I guess I wanted something to Crow about."

"Nope." Necromicon flew on ahead towards where Sae was walking towards the door. "No more buffs for you until you stop punning."

The group's progress was halted by the echoing sound of a faint scream.

"Was that you, Crow?"

"No? Did Oracle miss an episode of Neo Featherman?"

"Not me, I stream it off the internet!"

"Of course you do."

"Whoever it was," Sae interrupted," they are long behind us. No one else but us can access the Metaverse."

"Yeah."

Haru quietly glanced backwards, discomfort evident on her face before trudging after the others. She badly wanted to get out of this place as soon as they got the treasure.

"Don't worry, Noir," Makoto whispered as she slowed down to start walking next to her. "I'm sure it was just one of the robots."

...

It was not one of the robots.

But rather Akira Kurusu, who had freaked out upon realising he was no longer in Shido's office, but now somewhere completely unrecognizable. His head span, his stomach lurched and his heart thumped with a rapid beat as he looked around frantically, trying to figure out where on Earth he had gotten himself to.

"Just look in Shido's house for anything suspicious, Akira," he said to himself. "No one said anything about being dragged to a completely different part of the planet altogether!"

"**Calm yourself.**"

The voice was back. Akira looked frantically for it.

"Where are you? Where am I?"

"'**One thought, fills immensity.' All will make sense in time.**"

So the voice knew the Proverbs of Hell. At least it had good taste.

Akira took several deep breaths, focussing on his surroundings to calm down.

"What is this place?"

"**A Palace.**"

"It doesn't look like one to me."

"**This is the heart of a human, twisted by their own desires. A palace is born from that.**"

"Seriously?"

"**Possibly. I only know as much as yo****u.**"

So it knew nothing about this place. "So how do I leave?"

"**I wouldn't leave**."

"Why? This is clearly-"

"**I can sense Haru nearby.**"

That got Akira's attention, unsurprisingly. "Where?"

"**Use the navigator.**"

Akira looked down at his phone, back at the red app, which suddenly had a lot more information on it than before. "How can I find her? This just shows a map."

"**Check the locations. Go to the bottom.**"

Perhaps normally, he wouldn't listen to the voice in the back of his head telling him to mess about with a strange app, but in fairness to Akira, this wasn't a normal situation. Opening the locations tab on the app, he scrolled down the last location.

"Weapons Production Safe Room. That doesn't sound very safe."

"**Press the** **location**."

And Akira did. And the world around him distorted and twisted once more, dropping him in a room that looked suspiciously like a board room.

"**This is a safe room.**"

"A safe room?"

"**Yes. It is a room in which-**"

"WARNING." Akira flinched as an automated voice began to blare. "THE SELF DESTRUCT SEQUENCE HAS BEEN ACTIVATED. ALL PERSONNEL PLEASE EVACUATE TO YOUR ASSIGNED ESCAPE PODS."

"I don't suppose this room can keep us safe from the self destruct sequence, can it?"

"**No.**"

Today really wasn't his day, was it?

"THE SPACEPORT WILL SELF DESTRUCT IN T-MINUS FOURTY MINUTES. WARNING-"

"We get it!" Akira shouted, before starting to pacing the floor of the room. "How do we find Haru?

"**Check the map.**"

Akira looked down at the app, pulled the locations tab away and looked at the map to see multiple dots moving on the map near him.

"**White indicates friendly, I think?**"

"If you're wrong, I'm going to be very annoyed." Akira shook his head and made his way to the doors of the room, pushing through them out of the so called safe room and into the rest of the spaceport.

Any other time, Akira would've been in awe of the outlandish place he had wound up in. As it was, he was on a time limit here and he needed to find Haru, so he kept his head down and followed the map on the app to try and find out where the gaggle of blips had gone. Too busy watching the map to-

"**Kid!**"

Akira jerked in surprise and stumbled backwards, narrowly avoiding the tumbling debris that took out the bridge in front of him.

"**You were almost hit by that. Be more careful!**"

"I will!" Akira took a glance at the remains of the bridge in front of him. "I think the path is out. How do we catch up?"

"**Look around, there should be another way** **around.**"

"I hope you are right."

"**There.**" The world around Akira dimmed and a ledge across from him began to glow. "**That will take us to her.**"

"And how do you think we should get across? I can't fly."

"**You climb over there**." A ledge closer to him began to glow, and Akira nodded.

"Just a jump to the left?"

"**But not a step to the right**."

"Bring my knees in tight?"

"THE SPACEPORT WILL SELF DESTRUCT IN T-MINUS 35 MINUTES. WARNING-"

The warning was drowned out by the sound of something metal and massive crashing to the ground near Akira, causing him to frown in alarm.

"**Let us hurry, Akira.**"

"I know." Akira walked backwards a couple of steps, mentally thankful that he'd not brought the glasses Shido had given him with him into here before running towards the ledge the voice had highlighted and leaping at it, his hands scrabbling for and then gaining a handhold on the ledge, before pulling himself up. "Thank you for that exercise routine, Akihiko," he muttered as he stood upright, feet balancing precariously on the edge as he shimmied along the wall to the next ledge.

"Now where?" Akira asked as he pulled himself up onto the next ledge.

The world would answer his question by way of a small object flying from the platform near him to a ledge not far from him. His surroundings dimmed once more, before a busted metal pipe in front of him began to glow.

"And it has a ramp leading up to it." Akira's shoulders sagged and he shook his head. "It's like the author made this part an obstacle course because they didn't want to write a boss fight or something," he muttered before letting out a yelp as something invisible slapped the back of his head. Rubbing the back of his head with a sigh, he shimmied along the ledge until the ledge widened out into a path he could walk on normally, until he reached the ramp.

"How am I supposed to get across that?" Akira's voice was laced with incredulity as he looked between the pipe and the ledge he needed to go to.

"**Remove the gun from the bag, and use the bag to swing yourself over.**"

"No, that's my school bag. I can't use that."

"**Do you see any other way across?**"

"I..." Akira looked around, before stomping his foot with a annoyed huff and folding his arms. "This is stupid!"

"**It is the only way to her.**"

"I know..." Akira muttered something unrepeatable before reaching into his schoolbag and pulling the gun out, storing it in the back of his pants, tucking the shirt in to make sure it stayed there. Taking a few steps backwards, Akira held his bag with both hands before running towards the end of the ramp and leaping into the air, launching the bag at the pipe.

The pipe flew between the bag and the handle, securing the bag and letting out a groan as the pipe and handle took Akira's weight, swinging the boy around. Akira let go of the handle and landed on the ledge, turning around in time to watch his schoolbag fall into the abyss below.

"Great. Now what do I tell the teachers tomorrow?"

"**We'll cross that bridge when we get to it.**"

"I'm sure they'll love that excuse." Akira shook his head as he knelt down to pick up the object that had landed on the ledge and looked it over. "A big red button on a remote. Well, the place is already counting down to self destruction, this can't do any worse." Akira pushed the button on the remote.

And a gigantic metal groan bellowed around the area, and a huge metal cage was lifted up and away from the platform ahead.

_Well, that did something._

...

Debris bounced off of the top of the cage next to her, the rest of the Phantom Thieves having been contained inside courtesy of her father's trap. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Queen analyzing the cage, trying to figure out how to get them free.

She needed to do something too, she realised.

"Father!" she shouted, glaring at the man sat in the flying sci-fi chair in front of her. "Why are you doing this? They only want answers!"

"Haru, my child, surely you can't be ignorant to their plans? They want to render everything I've worked for all for nothing!"

"What plans? Telling them who made you pay Medjed-"

"You think he made me? That was my own choice!"

"He?"

Kunikazu uttered a quiet curse upon realising his slip up. "It doesn't matter. The white mask will be here soon, and then you Thieves will be no more." The hoverchair descended a few feet, bringing him face to face with his daughter.

"Haru, you are my child, so please, listen to me. If he sees you and realizes you are with the Thieves, he will not show you mercy." Kunikazu held out his hand to Haru, his voice taking on a pleading tone. "Come with me. Whatever it is you want, I will give to you, just please come with me out of here so that I can keep you safe from him."

"You want me to leave my friends behind?"

"I did not think you considered such riffraff your friends. Have you learned nothing from what I have taught you?"

Haru's eyes narrowed. "If I said yes, would you convince Shido to let Akira return home and to call off the engagement?"

Kunikazu hesitated. "That is not possible."

"Then make it possible!" She lashed out at him, smashing through the helmet on his suit and striking him in the face with such intensity that it knocked him clean out of and over his chair.

"Haru!" Kunikazu looked at her in shock as he cradled his nose. "Why?"

Haru's glare softened, her internal conflict showing for a second before she steeled herself. "If this was for yourself or for your company, you would do it. So why not for your daughter?!" she asked. "You told me that my engagement would make you happy. You knew Akira wasn't doing this willingly, yet you still went through with it."

"Do you know how lucky you are?" The alarm in Kunikazu's voice was fading, now replaced with anger. "I've put in all this work for our family!"

"You did it for yourself." The fury that had caused her to lash out had simmered down to a cold anger. "Would you have still had me married me off if it wasn't someone like Akira?"

"Of course I would have! For our family, for a better tomorrow, I would sacrifice my own life for it!"

"What family?" Her fist connected with his face once more, knocking him back down. "You are all I have left, Father! Mother's gone and Grandfather's gone! Our family is just us now, why can't you see that?"

"Our company is our family!"

"It is your family! You never taught me anything about the company!"

The argument between Haru and Kunikazu was interrupted by the screech of metal, drawing their attention behind them to see the cage containing the Phantom Thieves being lifted up.

"Good work, Queen," they heard Mona say as the group slipped out from under the cage.

"It wasn't her, but not relevant. How should we find out who the knock off Darth Vader was trying to impress?" Oracle asked. "I vote for 'tie him to Johanna and have Queen drive as fast as she can!'"

"We will _not_ be doing that."

The group turned their attention to the scene going on in front of them. Makoto made to walk forwards, only for Akechi's sword to block her path.

"If anyone deserves this, it's her. Let her deal with him."

Makoto glanced between him and Haru, but nodded and stepped back.

"I gave you a roof over your head! More food and clothing than you could ever dream of!"

"I wanted my father! I never cared where we went, I just wanted to be with you, but all you cared about was the company!"

"It will all be worth it in the end!"

"WARNING. T-MINUS 20 MINUTES TO SELF DESTRUCTION. ALL PERSONNEL MUST EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY."

A third punch was thrown, knocking Kunikazu to the floor once more. "I'm sorry, father, but I do not care for your excuses anymore." Haru shook her head in frustration and walked away, leaving the way clear for the Phantom Thieves.

Sae stalked over to where Kunikazu was laid down, bringing his attention fully to her by placing a knee and her weight fully on his chest. "Talk."

"I have nothing to say to you damn thieves."

"Oh really? What a shame. I guess we'll just leave then and let the white mask find out you let us go."

"I'd rather face him than talk to you."

"What about your daughter? We can send you back to your other self and leave her here for him."

Makoto flinched.

Akechi smirked.

Futaba and Mona shared looks of alarm.

Haru, somehow, didn't hear her.

Sae mentally prayed her bluff would work.

"You wouldn't dare."

"Would I?"

The silence reigned for a few seconds, before Kunikazu broke.

"Masayoshi Shido. That's the man I hired Medjed for."

"Thank you, your confession is most appreciated. Now, go back to your other self and confess, or we will be back to finish the job." Sae stood up from kneeling on Kunikazu to see Futaba and Akechi catching the treasure as it dropped out of the spaceship above them.

"Treasure secured!"

"That's another one. Now," Akechi said as he pinched the treasure out of Futaba's hands. "Let's make like a tree and leaf."

"Crow!" Futaba let herself be pulled up into Necromicon and started to chase Akechi, who had set off running down the stairs, laughing manaically with treasure in hand, Morgana racing after the two yelling for them to be careful.

Makoto walked over to Haru. "Is everything alright, Noir?"

"No. But I'll be fine. Give me time to speak to my father before we leave." Makoto nodded, and began to walk down the stairs with Sae in tow.

Leaving Haru alone with her father.

Haru turned away from the ledge she'd been looking out over to walk back towards her father, who had managed to push himself to his feet, albeit with a lot of coughing.

"Haru-" he began before coughing briefly once more. "Why have you turned on me?

"I have not turned on you, father. I just want you to go back to being my father, not the man who cares only for himself.

Kunikazu coughed once more, before speaking once more. "Would you still want me to be your father, after everything that has-"

Machine gun fire ripped through the air as he spoke, knocking Kunikazu forward into Haru. Managing to stop herself from falling over from losing her balance, she looked over at her father, who had been knocked over onto the floor.

"Father...?"

The only answer was a single, rattling breath, before the bullet riddled body of Kunikazu Okumura stilled and began to dissolve in front of Haru.

"Father!"

"Move!"

Haru felt something crash into her and knock her a few feet across the platform, narrowly avoiding the second peal of gunfire.

"You."

Haru looked up at the source of the voice and the gunfire, and her blood turned to ice.

"I thought she was a Phantom Thief. But you?" White metal formed a mask that covered the upper half of their face, spikes adorning their head with brown eyes staring a hole through whoever had pushed her out of the way.

"You just shot her father! What is wrong with you?!"

Haru recognized the voice.

"He had failed me too many times. Now, why are you here?"

Akira groaned. "I don't know, the stupid app sent me here and a voice in my head told me to come here so I could find someone who I'm worried about and then go home. Now tell me what the-"

He was cut off by a round of gunfire aimed at the feet of the other guy. Turning around, he saw the hat wearing girl holding a rifle, aimed at the spiky man in front of him.

"You murdered his shadow! Do you realise what you have done?"

The white masked man didn't answer, instead turning to face Akira. "Are you going to let your fiancé talk to me like that?"

"Fiancé?" Akira glanced between hat girl and spiky man, before his eyebrows shot up in alarm. "Haru?!"

"There's no time to explain. This palace is going to fall apart soon-"

"WARNING. T-MINUS 10 MINUTES TO SELF DESTRUCTION. ALL PERSONNEL MUST EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY."

"-and I'm going to make sure he falls with it!" Haru threw her rifle aside and summoned her axe, charging at the masked man. The gun sild to a halt by Akira's feet and he quickly picked it up, looking up in time to see the spiky man swat Haru aside with a backhand, knocking her across the platform and out cold before turning to Akira.

Neither man hesitated. Akira fired the rifle's grenade launcher, the grenade crashing into the spiky man's chest and exploding.

And that was the last thing he saw before the man blitzed through the smoke and shoulder checked him off the platform and into a wall, knocking him unconscious.

...

"-up."

"-ke up."

Had she fallen asleep?

No. She had been in her father's palace, helping the Phantom Thieves to steal his heart when-

"I said wake up."

Ice cold water crashed against her face, the chill of it forcing her eyes out and making her shriek in alarm.

"There's no need for that!"

"Then wake up, Phantom Thief. Or do you prefer Haru Okumura?"

That got Haru's attention. Shivering, she looked up at the source of the voice, trying to ignore the strain on her arms from whatever was holding them.

"How do you know who I am?"

"Perhaps if you saw me, you would realise the predicament you are in." The figure stepped out of the shadows to stand in front of her, light glinting off of their mask, and dread filled Haru once more.

"White Mask!" Haru attempted to lash out, but quickly found that her hands and feet had been chained to the wall. "Why did you kill my father's Shadow? Don't you know what happens when you do that?!"

"Of course I do." A small smirk formed on the masked man's face. "And even if I wanted to tell you about why your father had to die, I am on a schedule here. So I am going to cut you a deal instead."

"I'm not interested in your deal."

"Wrong answer." The masked man struck Haru across the face. "You will hear me out."

"I will not."

A second blow connected, this one aimed at her solar plexus. "You do not get a choice in this." When all Haru had to offer was coughing and wheezing, he continued. "You will tell me the names of your fellow Phantom Thieves, and in return, I will allow you to leave. Are we in agreeance?"

"No."

"That is exactly want I wanted to hear." The man's smirk grew into a psychotic smile, and he immediately slugged Haru in the gut before striking her twice across the face again. "You Phantom Thieves only care for yourselves. Finally being able to deliver justice on behalf of the public is so cathartic!"

"We do not care only for ourselves!"

"Oh, how naïve you are. Tell me, why did you join them?"

"Never." She spat at the man's face. "I won't tell you anything.

"What a shame." The man wiped the spit off his face and snapped his fingers. The door opened behind him, and two guards walked into the room. "Bring her outside. We will end this there."

"End what?"

The only answer she got was another jab to the chest, making her double over coughing as the masked man left the room. One guard caught her when she fell when her arm restraints were released, the other working on the feet.

"Try anything, and we're authorized to kill you. Do as he says, and you'll go free."

_Kill?_

Having been freed from her restraints, Haru became aware that she was no longer clad in her Phantom Thief outfit. Wherever she was, she was not percieved as a threat yet.

So why did they have orders to kill her if she did anything?

So she stayed there, not moving, not trying anything as the guards dragged her across the floor out of the room and down a hallway, eventually arriving at a set of double doors that were swiftly opened by another pair of guards.

"So this is a Phantom Thief?"

"She doesn't look all that much."

"Careful, she'll might 'reveal your true form!' Ahahaha!"

Haru ignored the jeers and looks of the crowd as the guards dragged her out of the doors and across the floor to where the white mask was now standing, not facing her.

"I must thank you for bringing me this back to me. I had wondered what had happened to it."

"What even is it? It doesn't have anywhere for bullets to go."

"It's not a normal gun. On the contrary-ah, she's made it. Wonderful!" The masked man turned around to look at Haru, who had been dumped on her knees with her hands bound together. "You two should say hello to each other."

And so the masked man stepped aside, revealing the kneeling form of Akira Kurusu, who had his hands tied behind his back.

"Haru?"

"Akira!"

The two looked at each other in alarm, before Haru spoke again. "What are you doing here?!"

"I woke up here. Haru, what happened to you? You're all bruised and battered!"

The glare Haru shot the masked man's way gave Akira the answer to that question, and he began to struggle against his bonds, shooting the masked man a furious look. "You-why-areyou-I'mgonna-!"

"Silence." Akira stopped struggling and settled for muttering and glaring a hole in the spiky man's helmet. "There are two things that should be done. First, a special guest wishes to watch what happens next, so if you will excuse me..."

Pulling out the SEES gun Akira had found a couple of months back, the man set it to point towards the center of his mask and took a deep breath before pulling the trigger.

"We ask for you, Yaldabaoth!"

The mask fractured before exploding into a geyser of blue light that quickly took form above the man. The lights that shone behind Haru reflected off of the being's metal body, an aura of the same blue light glowing around it.

"You have done well, Shido."

"Shido?!" Akira and Haru both looked towards the man, who was now climbing back up from being forced to his knees, brown eyes now glowing yellow as he glared at them.

"And now, for the finale." Shido stalked over to where the two were kneeling, holding out his other hand to conjure a pistol. "I have two Phantom Thieves in front of me. I only need one of them to go back to the rest of them."

He aimed the gun at Haru as he walked over, his mind already made up as he released the safety. "Anything you want to say?"

_If this is it..._

"Akira." Haru turned her face to look at Akira, trying to hide the fear she felt. "If this is it, then I must thank you for everything you have done since we met. I'm glad that I got to meet you."

Akira raised his face to meet her eyes, unbridled terror in his eyes.

"Haru-"

Shido turned away from Haru, and she realized what was about to happen.

"No!"

Shido fired the gun twice at Akira, one striking his head, the other hitting his heart. The boy flinched backwards from the impacts, before slumping over lifelessly on the floor.

Haru stared as a pool of blood began to form around Akira's body. She kept staring, heedless of whatever Shido had said to the guards, even as her vision was blurred by tears.

In the space of a single day, she had lost both her father, and her fiancé.

...

_Author's Note: I am so sorry._


End file.
